CLOTHING TRADE

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 April 1938, Page 10

CLOTHING TRADE

MINISTER AND DISMISSALS [PEB PRESS ASSOCIATION.] WELLINGTON. April 16. “I notice that the employers are going to make representations to the Government. It seems to me it is becoming a common practice for dismissals to.be the forerunner of such representations,” said the Minister for Labour (Hon. H. T. Armstrong) today. when asked to comment on the reported position in the Dominion clothing trade. “Whether or not the employers think that is more likely to impress the Government 1 don’t, know,” Mr. Armstrong continued, “but I think quite a lot of the dismissals could be avoided .if the employers discussed these matters with the Government first, with a view to avoiding the necessity for dismissals. To dismiss employees and then seek a remedy from the Government is. to my mind, entirely wrong, just as wrong as it is /or the workers, to go bn strike and discuss their grievances afterwards. I am just as much .opposed to one method as to the other. TJie remedy, however, is not in my .hands, if it is a. .question of customs duties, the matter, of course, is one for the Minister for Customs. I am not saying it is so in these cases, because 1 do not.know, but sometimes this kind of trouble is due to inefli--ont management and over-capitalised /.;:slry.”