CORRESPONDENCE

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 138, 12 June 1936, Page 8

CORRESPONDENCE

TRUTH ABOUT RELIEF

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —Statements have been made by Ministers of the Crown and others that conditions and rates of pay have been improved considerably as from June 1 for those on relief. Instead of being in a better position many relief workers are now definitely worse off than they were under the former administration. I will give the position of the average class E (married man with wife and three children) worker in the Hutt Valley, as an example.

Prior to June 1 these men were engaged on task work one day weekly and received 39s plus a ration order equal to Is 6d weekly, and were able to purchase food coupons at the relief depots, thus effecting an average saving of approximately 7s weekly. This gives a total earning of 47s 6d weekly from relief. In addition workers were able to obtain working boots •free, and were encouraged to accept casual work on the days they were not employed at their relief tasks. This means a man had 4J days weekly in which to get further work; and in many cases he had one to two days work weekly, giving an average return of say £1 for li days' work. This added to relief pay and concessions gave many a return equal to 67s 6d weekly for a total of 2J days' work. Under the new conditions a man is required to work his full allotted time (25i hours weekly for class E). No allowance is made for wet time, which has to be made up before-pay could be collected. The result of this is that in the event of a full wet week the relief worker got absolutely no pay at all. If the full-time was worked the pay was £2 10s 6d weekly. There were no concessions on purchases of foodstuffs, and no boot issue. As wet time has to be made up it is impossible for a worker to undertake casual outside employment as it may be necessary to attend on the relief job every day to get in the 25J hours.

The position is thus: previous earn- - ings, 67s 6d for 2J days; present (iml proved?) position, earnings 50s 6d for 3 25J hours. However, as a result of a deputation waiting on the Hon. W. f Nash an arrangement has been made. * whereby the workers will, in the event of wet weather, draw the full pay of 50s 6d, but will be required to make up time lost through wet weather. A further disadvantage of the present system 7 is that a man is unable to look for r employment through putting in prac- " tically four days on the job. The solu- " tion is return to task work, thereby 1 enabling workers to take outside employment, or put all men on full-time 1 work. After paying rent of 22s 6d 2 weekly a class E worker now has 28s weekly to feed and clothe five persons, < to provide firing, light, etc. This is an i average of 5s 7d weekly per person. " These figures speak for themselves.— - I am, etc., t CLASS E. [ OFFICIAL REPLY j! Regarding the above complaint, the Department of Labour states: — "Task work is an arrangement under ~ which a worker is set a fixed amount of work, based on an average workj man's daily output, which he might reasonably be expected to complete in his scheme 5 time allocation. The time allocation of an 'E' class worker is 24 j hours, for which, prior to the recent , increase, he received 395. If, as con- ' tended, the worker was consistently j able to complete the set task in one . day, this is prima facie evidence that , the employing authority was more! , thai! reasonably lenient in fixing the ' amount of work to be performed. "The distribution of additional relief through the local relief committee's depot by way of a food coupon system' is not directly within the jurisdiction of the Department, but it is understood that in view of the increased assistance now provided to scheme 5 workers, the committee, in disbursing the limited funds at its disposal, gives prior consideration to men receiving r sustenance only. Time lost through wet weather is now paid for as though j it had been worked, that is to say, the relief worker is not required to make up such time. "The time allocation m future will be • adjusted over a four-weekly, period, i and any time less than half-days in the 1 period will not require to be worked. ! A class 'E' worker will now work three ■ days in each of three weeks and three | and a half days in the fourth week, so ' that he will still have reasonable opportunity of obtaining such casual private work as might be offering. The correspondent entirely ignores the main point that although he is now required to work at least three days weekly, he is being paid for the time worked at 16s per day, as compared to 12s per day, which was the basic rate ruling during the period to which he refers." UNION FUNDS (To the Editor.) Sir,—l read with interest and amusement the letter in your paper last evening with regard to union funds, and the horror with which the correspondent regarded the possibility of the funds going to the Labour Party's campaign fund. He states that some workers are forced to support the Government, even if their political ■ leanings differ from the platform of the party. Well, any worker who supports a former Government which cut his wages 20 per cent, and then added wage tax, and later paid him a miserable pittance on relief work, has lost his right to be called a worker and the term "slave" would be more fitting. If the individual who penned this letter were to question anyone who has belonged to a union he would find that the Labour Party does not receive all the funds of a union, but that a greater portion is spent in the fighting of compensation cases for widows and workers incapacitated in the course of their daily employment and the general handling of arbitration disputes and conciliatory agreements. Since the time of Richard John Seddon the Labour Party has been the champion of trade unionism, and a fair standard of living for the population of the Dominion, and, as the last election proved, the workers have placed their confidence in the party, and it is in : the hands of the workers to decide at union meetings whether they shall vote funds to the party or not. I have been a member of a union for some time now and if my donations to the party are going to safeguard industry from wage cutting and the industrial ; depression we have just passed through, : then I am giving my fees to a worthy • cause—l am, etc., THOS. J. L. TUCKER. ;