TO HELP MUSICIANS

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 117, 13 November 1935, Page 6

TO HELP MUSICIANS

UNEMPLOYMENT SUBSIDY

THEATRE ORCHESTRAS

Further details of the scheme for assisting musicians out of employment have been announced by the Unemployment Board. The board announces that it is prepared to subsidise orchestras in theatres in the hope that this may prove an avenue for the rehabilitation of unemployed musicians. Motion picture proprietors are being advised that the board is prepared to consider applications for orchestras, in which may be included the least possible number of women. The subsidy payable in the case of married men will be the ordinary Scheme 5 relief allocation of their conjugal classification, while in the case of single men and indispensable women the rate will be 30s per week. In each case, the theatre proprietors will pay each member 10s per week in order to bring the minimum wage up to £2 per week. In addition, the theatre proprietors will be required to pay whatever extra emolument is necessary for the conductor and also to provide free music. The scheme is not limited to those at present registered as unemployed, although proprietors should be asked to give preference to such men; all males engaged in this way must formally register at the bureau in order that their conjugal classification and consequently the amount of relief pay may be determined. In arriving at this figure, no other private earnings need be taken , into account. I A condition of any agreement is that | the experiment shall be given a trial for not less than twelve months. All applications will be submitted to and decided by the board. The theatre proprietors will pay the wages in the first instance, and claim for the appropriate I refund. Each male member included on the wage-sheet must be registered.