40-HOUR TANGLE

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 129, 2 June 1936, Page 10

40-HOUR TANGLE

CITY COUNCIL WOEKS

"HIDEBOUND DEPARTMENT"

The difficulty that arose last week over the hours adjustment of men on relief work was referred to by the Mayor (Mr. T. C. A. Hislop) at last night's meeting of the City Council. The difficulty was not one in any way connected with thc council's officers or arrangements, said Mr. Hislop, but arose in connection with a circular received from the Labour Department, which had altered the hours of these men and had also altered the pay. The Department had decided that the mem should be paid 2s an hour, but with] the new hours some of these men, according to classification, would be working the same number of hours and getting less pay, and others would be working longer hours, and, in some cases, not getting a proportionate increase. "This is a thing I think we should remedy," said Mr. Hislop. "The position is just this: A class men will work 12 hours. They now work 12 hours. but they used to get 27s 6d and now

they get 245. B class men worked 16 hours. They now have to work 20 hours. They formerly got 36s Sd; now they will get 40s. C men will work four hours longer, and their pay will go up 4s lid. So it goes on, with many valuations. "We should make it up that no man gets less than he did before. That will be a reasonable thing for us to do. It comes to this: the Government used to pay for a certain amount of time not worked for, and we agreed to do the same. If we make up the differences caused by the new arrangement so that the men get the same weekly amount, it will meet the immediate difficulties."

SUBSIDISED WOKK. Mr. Hislop explained that the new arrangements applied to subsidised work, such as that being carried on in Cambridge Terrace. That was ordinary City Council work and the council got a subsidy on it, the men working a 451-hour week and getting the full award rate. This the council was doing, but when the new scheme came in the circular stated that these men were to be paid 2s an hour. If these men got 2s an hour for 40 hours their earnings would be reduced, but if they got 2s an hour for 45.1 hours they would get more than the council's regular men. The council had communicated with the Labour Department, and it insisted that the men be paid 2s an hour if the council got a subsidy. The council did not wish to bring the week down to 40 hours, but a reduction of hours seemed the only way. It was suggested to the Department that the council continue to pay Is lid for the old 451 hours, and keep the men in the same position they were in before. Eventually the matter went to the Minister of Labour (the Hon. H. T. Armstrong) and the arrangement was altered so that the council • could continue to treat these men- as ordinary Corporation workers, pay them the same money and work them the same hours as any other Corporation employees. Councillor R. A. Wright, M.P.: Why did the Government make the alteration 7 , , , i The Mayor said that he understood it was to standardise the position throughout New Zealand. The council had been paying rather above what' some other parts of New Zealand had I been paying. Councillor P. M. Butler said that he was very pleased that the Mayor had made it clear that the difficulty had not arisen through the action o£ the council's officers: it had been brought about by the hidebound attitude oC a State Department. It had been impossible to get them to move from the position they had taken up, and it was an instance which should draw the attention of the Government to the fact that it was of no avail to pass .sympathetic legislation, if it was to be "unsympatheticaUy administered.