The Evening Star SATURDAY, JULY 14, 1928. RELIEF WORK WAGES.

Evening Star, Issue 19918, 14 July 1928, Page 6

The Evening Star SATURDAY, JULY 14, 1928. RELIEF WORK WAGES.

Local bodies in many parts ot ! Now Zealand are providing relief work for unemployed. So far as can be ascertained not a great deal of publicity has been given to the economic results obtained. As in the case of Wellington this week, tho announcement is made from time to time that a certain number of men arc at work, that the money. sot aside for wqges is running out, and that a fresh loan will have to be raised to provide more. But seldom are the ratepayers given an indication as to what value is being received for the money paid out. The attitude appears to bo that, as wages below tlie ordinary standard rates are being paid, the average output per man must not bo expected to approach that reached on ordinary works. Yet it ;s only business method to ascertain by how much there is a falling short, to what extent the provision of relief work may be regal ded as development and improvement, and how largo or small a proportion of it partakes of tho nature of camouflaged charity, IF slackness of employment persists from year to year and its acuteness covers an increasing number of months each year, it will be imperative to make such investigation. The matter Las probably been exercising the minds of more than one city or borough engineer, and ono of them has been courageous enough to invito his council to introduce a scheme aiming nt securing bettor value for expenditure, while nt the same time enabling the energetic and capable worker to rise superior to the levelling-down or vironmont in which he finds himself. Mr G. F. Clapcott. Napier’s municipal engineer, has found that one of the chief difficulties in dealing with the unemployed, is the fact that some men cannot and some will not do a fair day’s work, though all

expect the same wages and the same consideration from whatever organisation lias charge of unemployment relief. Mr Cinpeott has therefore suggested to tho Napier Borough Council that, if tho unemployed are graded according to their willingness and capacity to work, tho efficient and experienced worker will be able to maintain a first-class standard in output and earnings, with the result that the cominanity will escape a good deni of waste and tho willing and efficient worker escape being regarded by the public as lacking in energy' and in a sense of responsibility. No amount of supervision, ho says—and close supervision is costly—will get full value from the man who is quite untrained in doing pick-iiml-shovcl work, or make tho ne’er-do-well produce value for the present wages paid. He therefore proposes that tho labour available should be classed in three grades;—(l) .Efficient and experienced labour. (2) Men experienced in trades or business, but lacking in experience and training as labourers. (3) The semi-impossibles who hick interest in or knowledge of any class of work, but have dependents who must be provided for. His scheme provides for promotion from one grade to another, thereby providing an incentive, which must bo noticeably lacking under the present system ruling on relief works, to rise above a minimum which lias repeatedly been criticised as inadequate. not so much from the point ol view of work done as in the matter of purchasing power. How such a system would be received by the political champions of the unemployed it is impossible to say. ft mdics the principle of payment by results. Not long ago it was being urged that it would bo better for all concerned if our Arbitration Court took more cognisance of that principle in the framing of its awards, but the piecework suggestion was not received with outstanding cordiality in Labour circles. Yet among the workers in quite a number of branches of industry piecework rates have their staunch adherents. If the legend persists that all employers are uniformly favourable and all trade unions are persistently opposed to systems of payment by results, it must bo written down a fallacy. For example, at present in Britain there is not merely one trade union but a whole federation of trade unions in an important industry (the textile, dyeing, and finishing trades) threatening to strike unless payment hy results is made universal. The attitude of tracks unionists in general towards this principle depends on the character oi the work and on the nature of the system of payment proposed. This is illustrated in tho engineering industry. Here it is found (in Britain, at least) that the highly .skilled men, working on individualised processes and often on non-repetitivo jobbing work, tend to bo hostile to payment by results; while tho less skilled, employed mainly on repetition work, stand strongly for piece rates. As a general rule it may bo said that, while no one form of payment is likely to suit all industries, payment by results is preferable except when it tends to scamped work ami loss of craftsmanship. It has both its individual and collective forms. Collective piecework is no new tiling. I t lias been practised in “unskilled” labour on our public works in New Zealand. It is an approximation to that system which Mr Clapcott is now proposing. His object is not to get men cheap, but to get as good service as each man can render, and to pay each as muck as he earns.