RELIEF WORKERS

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 93, 17 October 1934, Page 19

RELIEF WORKERS

PETONE PROTEST MEETING

SYSTEM OF. PAYMENT

The Labour Hall, Petone, was filled last evening when a meeting was held to discuss the central pay office and other mattors connected with unemployment. Mr. A. Pritchard presided.

The meeting stood in silence for a minute as a mark of respect to the memory of tho late Mr. John Sandford.

Air. G. Watt, national president of tho Unemployed Workers' Movement, said that in the past the system of payment, although not all that might be expected, was better than that obtaining today. A vote was taken on different relief jobs on the matter, and the majority of tho relief workers were of the opinion that the present 6ystem of payment was unsatisfactory. To some the new pay system might bo of benefit, but this did not apply to the majority. A question they were really concerned with was that of standard rates of pay for relief workers. It seemed that the number of unemployed in New Zealand would be added to all the time. The relief workers in the different boroughs, particularly Lower Hutt, were '' absolutely being used.'' Important works, such as on Bandwick Eoad, had been in progress for some months now, and as these required a certain amount of skill, standard rates of pay should apply. Belief workers had been toiling hard so that they could be put on full time, but on. the Bandwick Boad job only seven men had been put on full time. The Lower Hutt Borough Council was putting through drainage at the expense of the relief workers.

Mr. B. James said the men had been turned off jobs simply and solely because they had taken a stand in the workers' struggle. Victimisation and sacking seemed to be able to take place with, impunity, he said. The member of Parliament for the district, Mr. Walter Nash, said that the Labour Party had stood up for the relief workers all along, and there were 24 members of Parliament who, for the past three or four years, had stood out for standard rates of pay on relief jobs. If 'work was necessary, it should be done at standard rates of pay, and if it was not necessary, it should not be done. Where necessary work was not available, payment should bo made as laid down by the original Unemployment Act of 1930. All the relief workers in the Hutt Valley should be in one big organisation. Mr. Nash said that although there might be good iv some individual cases in the subsidy scheme, the dangers attaching to it were so great that it would bo in the interests of the Dominion if it were abolished. Work was being done out of unemployment funds that should be done out of ordinary funds. If necescary work was done in the ordinary way, the unemployment funds would benefit. After referring to the need of an improvement in the payment of compensation to relief workers who had suffered accidents Mr. Nash went on to deal with the question of the manner of payment of relief workers in the Hutt Valley. He said he was satisfied it did not suit tho majority of relief workers in the Hutt Valley to have to go to the central pay oflice, as, despite official belief to the contrary, the distances that had to be covered by the relief workers were too great. Ho did not know why the Hutt Valley was selected for a central pay office, for although the system was established in Wellington and one or two other places, it was not a Public Works Department one. Mr. B. Scmplo, M.P., said that the policy of the Government with regard to unemployment was thoroughly bad. When the relief system was introduced by the Government tho Labour Party pointed out that the relief rate of pay would become general throughout New Zealand. The Government of course denied this, but tens of thousands of employees throughout the Dominion had been dismissed and re-engaged on relief rates. There was 110 hope for tho relief worker until the people put tho Government out of office. Although conditions wero bad in the towns, they

wero not nearly so bad as they were in some of the country places, and' people were literally being starved to death.

The following resolution was carried:—

"That this meeting of Petone residents and relief workers protests against the reduction of the tax on. incomes being made while the unemployed and their families are living below sustenance level and urgec the Government to reinstate standard rates of pay for all workers employed at necessary work, and the payment of sustenance on the scale provided by the 1930 Unemployment Act for those for whom no work is provided or who are engaged in unnecessary work." There were only one or two dissentients to tho motion.

A resolution was also passed to the effect that a deputation should wait on the Ministers of Public Works and Employment protesting against the establishment of a central pay office at Lower Hutt and requesting that the old system of paying on the jobs bo reverted to and that a central pay office be established at Petone.

A third resolution was passed _ requesting standard rates on all jobs, full time for wet weather, adequate travelling time,. and . transport to all jobs one mile or over from the Petone Post Office.

Another resolution carried was that all men charged with misdemeanours should be given a fair and impartial trial, and that men suspended should bo placed on a proper rate of sustenance until the trial.

The meeting closed with votes of thanks to Messrs. Nash and Semple, and tho chairman.