MORE BUILDING

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 130, 5 June 1933, Page 10

MORE BUILDING

SUBSIDY SCHEME

ANNOUNCED BY BOARD

FORTY-HOUR WEEK

An important extension of the building subsidy schems was announced by the deputy-chairman of the Unemployment Board (Mr. J. S. Jessep) last evening. The subsidy will now be paid at the rate of one-third of award wages in respect of all workers engaged on buildings and will be based on forty hours of work per week. Mr. Jessep stated that the main objects of the scheme were the revitalising of a stagnant industry, the reabsorption of skilled tradesmen into their callings, and the provision of needed housing accommodation for workers. Mr. Jessep said that the subsidy, which was formerly restricted to men engaged from the unemployment register, would now be payable at the rate of up to one-third of award wages in respect of all workers engaged on buildings. Where the men were engaged on the erection of a dwelling to cost not more than £650, this subsidy would be increased to 50 per cent. These payments would apply only to men actually working-on the sites of the. jobs, but the board had under consideration proposals to extend the scope of the scheme to tradesmen, such as joiners whose work, while essential to the job, may be done elsewhere. "A principal duty laid upon the Unemployment Board by the legislation ■which it administers," said Mr. Jessep, in explaining the reasons for the Teintroduction of the scheme in its altered form, "is that of creating employment, as distinct from merely _ relieving unemployment. This requires the expenditure of relief funds in such directions as will induce the spending of further money from private sources and enable the reabsorption of labour into accustomed channels. NINETY PER CENT. UNEMPLOYED. "The building trade and all its allied occupations account for a very large percentage of the total registered unemployed'; and it is estimated that the percentage of unemployed workers within that industry is 90 per cent: It is perfectly obvious, therefore, that anything which the board can do to stimulate the building industry must produce a more, marked improvement in the general unemployment situation than could similar measures applied to any other trade." "Building trade workers are nearly all highly skilled tradesmen, and on relief works full use cannot be made of their capabilities. This is not good ■business, nor is it good for the men themselves, whose proficiency in their crafts'tends to diminish. At the same time, there exists an urgent need for nouses which workers can afford with their present-day means. These were considerations when the Unemployment Board introduced the former No. 10 scheme early last year, and they hold good today. The effects of the old No. 10 scheme, as far as it went, Were good; but experience gained by the board in operating that scheme showed that full benefit could not be obtained unles3 it were made ' still more comprehensive and freer from restrictions. HOURS OF WORK. "One of the conditions of the former, scheme read as follows: 'The normal working week on works engaging subsidised labour shall be the same as laid down in the current agreement or award covering this industry. The board does not feel called upon to stipulate a shortening of hours as a general practice, but suggests that in view ..of the unlikelihood of the full complement of builders being re-engaged in industry, that just so long, j and whenever the number of registered unemployed building tradesmen exceeds 20 per.cent. of tha total, the weekly hours be reduced to forty, with the same rate of pay per hour applying.' "It has already been mentioned that the percentage of building tradesmen who are unemployed is now nearer 80 than 20; and in order that the benefit of the funds available for the scheme may be spread as widely as possible over the men, it has been decided to pay subsidy on forty hours of "work per week. "This aspect of the proposal tends to project it into a Sphere in which* the views of trade unions and employers are not as a rule in consonance; but prominent Labour officials have given the board unequivocal assurance of their appreciation that the. board, in its efforts to meet the exigencies of the situation, is at times obliged to take steps that unionists would normally oppose, and have further assured the board that they do irot regard any ■ action if the board under the special' circumstances as establishing a precodent applicable to normal times. SPREADING THE WORK. "Representations were made from another quarter with the object of having the subsidy applied to jobs on which the hours of work extended beyond the subsidised number .of forty. This proposal would not, however, be a factor favourable to the aim of the board to have the -work spread as far as possible among the unemployed tradesmen, and ,was, in fact, pronounced by certain large contractors as undesirable and unworkable. "The main objects of the scheme are the'revitalising of a stagnant industry, the reabsorption of skilled tradesmen into their callings, and the provision of needed housing accommodation for workers. The influence of successful and comprehensive activities having those specific objectives will open up extensive consequential avenues of employment that are closed at present. The Unemployment Board will do all that it can to make the scheme workable and effective, and it looks to both employers, and workers- to do their part towards producing creditable results. More detailed information of the scheme will be made available almost immediately to the trade."