Scheme 13 Men

Grey River Argus, 8 February 1941, Page 10

Scheme 13 Men

QUESTION OF OUTSIDE WORK CHRISTCHURCH, February 7. The situation which has arisen in Christchurch over the unwillingness of workers employed on relief works under Scheme 13 to accept work outside the city has caused the Government io decide to send a delegation of three Ministers to meet the workers in Christchurch this week-end. The Ministers who are coming south to meet the workers as a body are the Minister for Labour (the Hon. P C. Webb), the Minister for Public Works (the Hon. H. T. Armstrong), and the Minister for Supplv (the Hon. D. G. Sullivan), who, as member for Avon, has a local interest in the dispute between the Government and the relief workers. Although a statement of Government policy was expected to be given a week ago, it has not been made, but it is agreed that the instruction given to the employing officers .of the Labour Department in Christchurch that all men under 50 years of age, unless they could show cause, were to be transferred to other jobs, has Dominion-wide application. Notices that their employment on relief works will be terminated have been issued to a number of men in Christchurch. On Monday of this week, 18 of the 190 men offered jobs in the country had accepted, and a number have since agreed to leave the city. The view expressed at the last conference between the representatives of the workers and the Government was that the Government would no longer tolerate men being employed 6n unproductive works when their services were needed elsewhere. That view was advanced, according to reports, by the Minister for Finance (the Hon. W. Nash) and endorsed by Mr. Armstrong. The attitude of the relief workers was fully discussed by the Cabinet a't its meeting this week, and the visit of the Ministers this week-end is a consequence of the deliberations