UNEMPLOYMENT BOARD.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 283, 27 October 1934, Page 6

UNEMPLOYMENT BOARD.

SALARIES OF AIEAIBERS.

INCREASES OPPOSED. (By Telegraph.—Special to Standard.) WELLINGTON, Oct. 26. Contrasting their inability to get higher pay for relief workers with some substantial increases in salaries of members of the Unemployment Board, Labour members in the House of Representatives held up the Supplementary Estimates of the Unemployment Fund until they had secured full information and had made pointed comment.

The Leader of the Opposition (Air M. J. Savage) quoted items which comprised £650 for the deputy-chairman, £6OO for the second member and £270 for another. The salaries had previously been fixed by the Act. There appeared, he said, to have been some substantial increases. He also wished to make it clear that, in his opinion, the men who carried the job out were not getting more than they deserved. The policy they carried out could not be discussed, but the board existed and his protest was against the fact that while the Government could not afford to pay increased wages from the fund it could give large salary increases from it. ; Hon. J. A. Young, acting Alinister of Employment, explained that the member now getting £650 had taken the position of deputy-chairman having previously been paid £270. The former salary of the deputy-chairman was £4OO. It was at first thought that the work could be done in part-time, but it had grown so much and was so responsible that it was essential that there should be two full-time executive members while the third, on part-time, received £270. Mr P. Fraser: That is absurd. The Alinister of Finance: Plus 10s per day allowance. Mr Fraser remarked that be l»*d commented on the absurdly small amount of the salary. Air Young stated that the members receiving full-time salary would not continue to get the allowance.

Air Fraser moved a reduction in the vote as a protest against any increases while relief workers were not adequately paid. No doubt, when compared with other members of the Public Service, the measure of work of the Unemployment Board was satisfactory and efficient, and it was arduous, but if he agreed to the increases he would be endorsing the policy carried out and administered by the board, which he opposed. A time when the Government was refusing to make adequate provision for the unemployed, and when His Alajesty’s son was coming to the country; with so many thousands unemployed and their dependants in a state of semi-starvation, was not the time to increase any salaries whatever. The amendment was negatived by 29 votes to 23 and the Estimates were passed.