MEN EMPLOYED ON PUBLIC WORKS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIX, 29 January 1936, Page 8

MEN EMPLOYED ON PUBLIC WORKS

MINIMUM PAY OF 14s 8d A DAY reported Promise by MINISTER (By Telegraph—Fi-ese Association) AUCKLAND, 27th January. In addressing the men involved in a dispute over rates of pay at the Maugere aerodrome improvement works, a statement was made by Mr F. E. Lark, secretary of the Auckland Provincial Unemployed Workers’ Association, that while he was in Wellington last week tlie Minister for Public Works (the Hon. 11. Semple) had promised that within a month an agreement would be reached fixing tlie minimum wage for men employed on public works at 14s 8d a day.

After Mr Lark’s address and a long conference with representatives of the Public Works Department, the dispute at the aerodrome was temporarily settled. The men returned to work under protest for a period of one month on Mr Lark’s assurance that Mr Semple fully understood the position, and that a conference was to be called shortly to draft an agreement governing conditions and rates of pay on public works in future. The men were informed that the Minister for Employment would visit Auckland at the end of the week, when their case would be presented to him. TROUBLE AT MANGERE AERODROME (By Telegraph—Press Association'! AUCKLAND. 29(h January. Thirty strikers at the Mangere aerodrome who yesterday resumed work were not working to-day, following an assurance given by the secretary of the Unemployed Workers’ Association, Mr E. Lark, last evening that if they left the job they would receive sustenance. A man who applied for sustenance this.morning alleges that he was informed lie would have to return to the job.