UNEMPLOYMENT.

Franklin Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 127, 1 November 1933, Page 8 (Supplement)

UNEMPLOYMENT.

STATEMENT BY MR J. S. JfcSSEP. WHAT RELIEF WORKS ARE.

In an interview at Christchurch, Mr J. S. Jessep (Deputy Chairman, Unemployment Board), outlined some of the principal factors which have influenced the board in its decision to institute the piecework system on relief works.

“Whilst the board is fully alive to the real hardships through which many people are passing through no fault ot their own, and to whom it is necessary for the community to afford relief,’’ said Mr Jessep. “it is essential for the public—and relief workers as well —• to remind themselves of the reason that relief works exist at all in the Dominion. They are for the sole purpose of granting relief to distressed citizens whose own personal efforts to obtain employment are utterly without avail. Relief works are not, and can never be, a permanent source of income. The new lengthy period over which the depression has extended has unfortunately resulted in a certain class of unemployed person attaching the character of permanency to relief work. This results in a relaxation of individual effort to obtain an independent livelihood. In the national interest this damaging tendency must not be allowed to become established as a characteristic.

“The money which is used to carry on relief works is not supplied from some limitless and impersonal source. It comes entirely from the wages-tax and the emergency charge on the income of every citizen not on relief. These, in the main, are not wealthv people. They are the worlc-a-day citizens—small tradesmen, labourers, professional men. clerical workers, shop and factory workers, farmers, and in fact all those who make up the majority in every community. Every contributor to the fund has a direct personal interest n the use to which the money is put. The money is taken from them for a specific purpose and with a specific excuse. The purpose is to carry on relief works for their unemployed necessitous fellows. The excuse, is that these unemployed neighbours must otherwise lack the bare necessities of life, because, try as they will. they simply cannot find private employment to earn those necessities. This is the position reduced to its essentials. It will bear thinking about by every person who is paying his or her portion into the unemployment fund.

“The people who arc the I a rarest class of contributors to the unemployment fund could not afford themselves to squander the sums they contribute, nor' could they spare I lie money from their individual household incomes as a gratuity to someone who did not need it badly. The unemployment board, employing authorities and unemployment committees are trustees for lire contributors, with a definite duty to see that the money goes to people in necessity through involuntary unemployment*, and that the contributors, as a community, get reasonable value in work performed for the expenditure. Otherwise tire relief money, instead of meeting a real need, creates an artificial one. is taken needlessly from people who can ill spare it, is wasted, demoralises those who receive it. and the taxation is perpetuated.

“The board, in its last report to Parliament. made clear its dis-satisfaclion with scheme r>, which has been the main avenue of relief employment, and its desire to improve the method. Apart from the board’s responsibility to see that a reasonable amount of useful work is faithfully performed for the relief money expended, the need is now definitely urgent, in Ihe interests of relief workers themselves, to circumvent the demoralising influence on them of being relieved of any need for personal diligence in the performance of whatever work they are required to do in return for relief money. A private worker has to seek out his employment for himself: a relief worker has if found for him regularly. A private worker has to earn bis wages to the satisfaction of his employer, or is discharged: a relief worker enjoys considerable latitude in this respect.

Men among the unemployed whos lifetime habit and pride it has been to give a fair return for their pay will welcome the opportunity of giving a reasonable day’s work for the reliet money paid to them. With a lengthy experience of workers throughout New Zealand 1 am satisfied that the men who are prepared to adopt this attitude arc by far in the majority. On daywork they have no incentive to apply themselves more conscientiously than the least willing ones among their fel-low-workers. In some cases, they are even intimidated against doing so. The best of men cannot for long maintain their standard under these conditions. The result is a process of levelling down. The men cannot afford to allow it to continue.

“The piece work and contract method gives scope for the natural individualism of Now Zealanders. It places a premium upon individual or collective industry. It will restore waning self-respect. A piece worker can. feel that tic lias earned whatever relief money he receives from the fund provided by his neighbours, and that the value of the work he has given has discharged his obligation for the assistance he has received. lam well aware that the introduction of piece work or contract methods will be difficult in some eases, and that in the case of men who arc not too robust it may be impossible. Hut on all ordinary jobs it is quite possible to set some, reasonable basis. There is not the sigh test intention on the part of the board to reduce by this method the amount of relief which, according to the money available and the necessiti ies of relief workers, will be allocated to centres. The board have put. Ibis proposal forward to employing bodies for their serious consideration. They have collateral responsibility with the board to see that the term “relief worker” does not becopie a term of general reproach. I wish to emphasise the fact that, despite the opposition to piece-work expressed in certain

quarters, I have been told personally by hundreds of relief workers throughout the Dominion that they would prefer to have the opportunity of being able to feel that they have given such return as they are able for the relief given to them by their fellow citizens.

“Under the proposed system the men will be able to do this. Their neighbours will have done their part by providing the funds for those that need help: (he employing authorities will have done their part by providing the work and arranging it on terms sothat no man need feel any loss of selfrespect in its performance. Those who really do need the assistance thus paid for and provided by their fellow citizens will take it. The other type will become definitely distinguishable, and if they refuse the proffered assistance of the community, it will be no doubt be because they can do better on their own account.”