PUBLIC WORKS MEN

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXVI, Issue 183, 18 July 1936, Page 4

PUBLIC WORKS MEN

Medical Association Formed in Napier HOSPITAL TREATMENT With a view to bringing all Public Works Department employees under a fully representative organisation in regard to the benefits derived from tbe Hawke’s Bav and Wairoa Hospital Boards by way of reduced fees for ill» ness and accidents, delegates of the various Publie Works schemes in operation throughout Hawke's Bay met in Napier this morning and formed a Public Works Employees’ Medical Association. All camps and bodies of employees throughout, tho district will be invited to join up with the association, with which will be incorporated the Waikokopu-Kopuawhara Medical Association. whicl was in force between 1929 and 1931.

Representatives of railway, aerodrome and hij'jiways workers were present at the meeting, which was presided over by Mr W. G. Parkes. Tho chief clerk of the Public Works Department, Mr. J. A. Wilkinson, was also present, and he outlined the advantages to be derived from an incorporated medical society. It had been the practice of the Public Works Department, he said, to deduct one shilling a week from the wages of tbe depiytment’s employees. The money was paid to the Hawke's Bay Hospital Board, which gale workers and their families hospital treatment at reduced rates. An agreement with tho Wairoa Hospital Board .giving similar terms was also in force. The idea of the proposed association was that the whole of the Hawke's Bay district, so far as Public Works employees were concerned, should be governed by one society. “You may rest assured that if you Incorporate a society, the hospital boards will be only too pleased to grant you concessions,’’ Mr Wilkinson added.

The meeting then formally approved of the formation of the Public Works Employees’ Medical Association, and it was decided to accept the agreement between the Waikokopu-Kopuawliara Medical Association and the Wairoa Hospital Board as a basis upon which to form its constitution and to open negotiations. Mr E. McCarthy, of Putorino, was appointed secretary. Two sub committees were appointed to interview the secretaries of t' s two hospital boards. These were as follows:—

To interview the secretary of the Hawke's Bay Hospital Board. —Messrs E. McCarthy, W. G. Parkes and B. Dunbar.

To interview the secretary ot the Wairoa Hospital Board. —Messrs J. Fraser and W. G. Dickenson. Mr Wilkinson advised the meeting that over 1000 Public Works employees were on the Hawke's Bay pay-roll