RELEASE OF MEN

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20634, 14 August 1941, Page 6

RELEASE OF MEN

POST OFFICE STAFFS REPLACEMENT BY WOMEN TRAINING IN DUTIES (Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. The policy of the Post Office to meet the staff problem in wartime has involved the training of young women in work formerly done by men. This, in connection with machine-printing telegraphy, states the DirectorGeneral’s annual report, has been adopted with very good results. A training school in machine printing was .opened in May and already 62 trainees have completed the course and are r.ow being employed as full working units in the telegraph offices where the machineurinting system is in operation. Twenty-three trainees still in the school should soon qualify. Additional applicants are being selected for training. Employees released for service overseas to March last totalled 1395 and, following the introduction of an intensive . training scheme for Territorial units, no fewer than 1256 officers were released to undergo three months’ Territorial training. At the end of March there were 581 departmental officers in Territorial camps throughout the Dominion. Services Curtailed The Director-General points put that the necessity for conserving manpower involved the curtailing of services which could not be justified in full measure during the war. "“With many of its trained personnel serving with the armed forces, it was only to be expected that the department would experience difficulty in maintaining its staff at strength sufficient to meet all requirements. Some measure of relief has been obtained by retaining in service, beyond their normal time of retirement, a number of officers who have completed 40 years’ service. “The department’s main effort in meeting the staffing problem has, however, been in the direction of employing female labour. Every endeavour has been made to secure the right type of applicant and, generally, the women placed in employment are performing good service and have quickly adapted themselves to departmental work. These woipen are being engaged purely on a temporary basis on the clear understanding that their services are required only for the duration of the war. Whenever possible, the wives of officers released for war service are given employment in the department.”