37s. 6d. A WEEK

Grey River Argus, 16 March 1932, Page 5

37s. 6d. A WEEK

LATEST RATE For Relief Work (Per Press Association). CHRISTCHURCH, March 15. Forty hours work for 37s 6d a week are the conditions under which twenty unemployed . married . men of Christchurch were offered work’by the Unemployment Board in cleaning .out the Kaituna River for the Wairewa County Council. Eighteen of the men accepted the conditions and left the city’this morning by train. The amount of 37s 6d a week is the same as these men• previously-had been given -for working three days weekly under the No. 5 •’Scheme. . From this ■ there will bp deducted the-cost, of their food, but they will have free living quarters, providing their own blankets and cooking their own food. They will, however. have the advantage of being in work continuously, and not for three weeks in every four. Trade union officials spoke to the men before their leaving, endeavouring to dissuade them from accepting work on those conditions, but only two of the men chose to accept their ad According to one of the officials, the men said that they were in such an extreme of poverty that they were forced to accept the conditions of work that, wore offered them. A party of police were on the station in case of any disturbance, but no action on their part was necessary.