AUXILIARY TRADESMEN

Evening Star, Issue 23907, 10 June 1941, Page 8

AUXILIARY TRADESMEN

NONE EMPLOYED IN RAILWAY WORKSHOPS RIGHT OF SERVICE EXEMPTION CHALLENGED (P.A.) CHRISTCHURCH, June 9. Criticism of the failure of the Government workshops to employ men trained under the auxiliary scheme, while the same workshops asked for sine die postponements of appeals through the Director of National Service (Mr J. S. Hunter) on behalf of workshops employees, was expressed by Mr G. T. Thurston, a member of the Christchurch Manpower Committee, at a sitting of the committee to-day. Mr Thurston, who is the secretary of the Amalgamated Engineering and Allied Trades Industrial Union of Workers, said the committee should be consistent in its decisions, and, if' it gave special privileges to the Government workshops as employers, then it should give the same privileges to private employers engaged in similar industries. Mr Thurston's statement was made when three appeals by the Director of National Service on behalf of workshops apprentices in the Railways Department came up for hearing. Decision was reserved. A letter from the director suggested that the appeals should be adjourned sine die, and stated that the men would be required to enrol under the Emergency Precautions Scheme. The men were: Alexander Robert Owen, an apprentice boilermaker ■ Morgan Roy Davies, an apprentice fitter and turner; and Alfred Read, an apprentice fitter. Captain G. H. Anderson, representing the military authorities, asked why these men should be lost to the army. Why should they not do their Territorial service? “ It appears that the Government workshops need only to apply to the committee and an adjournment is. granted,” Mr Thurston said. “ There is a shortage of skilled workers in New Zealand, yet the Government workshops refuse to take on any of the auxiliary workers. The original idea was that they would take them all, the workshops to be a sort of depot foi which these workers would be drawn on. The ordinary employer is asked to place these auxiliary workers, but the Government departments are refusing to take any. I cannot see that the Government itself is responsible; it must he the departmental heads. “ If we have any policy, it must be common to all," Mr Thurston added. “ If we grant these adjournments at the request of the Director of National Service, we must grant every other employer in a similar industry the same privilege. These men are just as necessary in private industry as in Government workshops. How is a private firm going to put on an extra shift unless extra workers are trained?

DISMISSAL SUGGESTED. “ Why does the department not assist us? ” Mr Thurston asked. “We know that in Wellington, where a considerable number of these auxiliary workers have been trained, the Government workshops have taken none. Ordinary industry has to struggle on as best it can, yet Government departments expect an adjournment sine die every time.” The refusal of the workshops to take any of the auxiliary workers, Mr Thurston continued, meant that private enterprise had to absorb them and assist the Government to overcome a difficulty, not only by bearing the cost of training these_ auxiliary workers, but by contending with the disruption of the ordinary workshop staff and, particularly, the apprentice staff. It was the strangest situation, and one that was not going to reflect very great credit on the departmental heads. “ I suggest that all these applications should be adjourned..until we can have a discussion with the Director of National Service and the” General Manager of Railways,” Mr Thurston added. The chairman, Mr J. S. Barnett: We have had the .manager of the Addington workshops here before. We could get him here again. Mr Thurston: The General Manager is the man. The workshops manager is a member of the committee for training auxiliary workers. The Chairman: If we adjourn the cases until we can get the General Manager down here we will wait a long time. “In that case we should dismiss the appeals, as we would do with any others whore the employer was not present.” Air Thurston said. “We should not differentiate in our decisions. In fact, the leniency should be the other way.”