LABOUR FOR FARMS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20639, 20 August 1941, Page 2

LABOUR FOR FARMS

SHORTAGE NOT ACUTE OPINION OF WORKER The opinion that the farm labour shortage in the Gisborne district was not nearly so acute as was suggested by the comment of the State placement officer was made to-day by a farm worker who claims to be in touch with a good deal of this type of labour. Much of the difficulty, he says, is due to the reel tape which governs the work of the placement office and to the discrimination that is shown in the provision of employment. He quotes his own experience as a case in poinL. Because he is over do years of age and in receipt of a pension the placement office will have nothing to do with him; he is regarded as being debarred from receiving employment, although ho is still quite capable of giving a fair day's work. There are quite a number of men walking the streets who are similarly situated and who would willingly accept farm work if it was available to them. In other instances, he said, there were younger men who, because they had declined work which was not congenial to them, or to which they were not accustomed, or because it was too far from town, were regarded by the placement office as ineligible. In other cases, men had been struck off the lists because of some partial or temporary disablement. All this labour, he contended, was available and could to a large extent be used to relieve men who were competent to undertake heavier or more important work.

The difficulty, in his view, was that there was no channel through which this labour could be directed. Employers had come to rely on the placement office, but that office had deliberately placed itself out of touch with much of the labour that was offering. He suggested that if farmers requiring labour were to advertise in •(he ordinary way they would have much better prospects of seauring the labour they required.