PUBLIC WORKS CAMP.

Evening Star, Issue 22033, 20 May 1935, Page 10

PUBLIC WORKS CAMP.

TO THE EDITOR. SirjwThe members of the Carpenters’ Union are concerned about tue treatment meted out to a few or.oui members who were beguiled into accepting work at Oturehua Falls da , through the Labour Bureau. ii t conditions presented to them by the clerk in the bureau were four months woxk alls 10td per hour. Despite the fact that this rate is 3Jd below the ruling rale for carpenters, imagine their surprise when, after being there a little over a month, they were told to do labouring work, as there was not enough work for carpenters. I hoy do not complain about doing labouring work, but when the rate was reduced to Is 4Jd, a weekly difference of £1 ds, they began to feel that the vaunted Englishman’s word being did not apply to the Public Works administration. These men sacrificed any opportunity that might exist or obtaining employment in their home town, at a more or less reasonable rate, of remuneration on an assumption that a regular weekly wage would be assured for at least four months, and if our Public Works officials are allowed to treat our workers in such an , arbitrary manner without raising a

storm, of protest from the workers w,ho might themselves be compelled some time to accept work under similar conditions. then that love of fair play and sense of honour which we Britishers are supposed to possess is only a sham and a hypocrisy:— 1 am, etc., , Samur]/ Ikin. Secretary A.S.C. and J... Otago Branch. [We are informed that the Public Works Department applied for- some carpenters from the Labour Bureau, and tradesmen were taken from relief work to till the vacancies. It is denied that any promise was given as to the duration of the work, and it is the department’s practice ,to give carpenters work at their trade while it is available, and then transfer them to labouring work if it is offering.—Ed, E.S.]