THE INDUSTRIAL WORLD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21987, 23 June 1933, Page 3

THE INDUSTRIAL WORLD

NEWS AND NOTES

By J. T. I'AL'r,.

We shall not save our liberties if we trifle with them. . . . Unless there are enough men and women in the world today who believe that liberty and freedom of conscience and opinion are things which have what philosophers call absolute value, and that submission to those who would extinguish them is not compatible with self-respect or any good way of living for intelligent and civilised human beings, the future will be with the Dictators. What is more, those who condone one kind of tyrannywfill be very likely to fall into the hands of another. —Mr J. A. Spender. WAGES TAX LIABILITY. The difficulty of detecting cases of failure by employers to affix stamps under the Unemployment Act has been emphasisted by administrators of the law. It it pointed out, for instance, that a number of people had been under the impression that the tax was not payable on wages paid to dressmakers who were employed casually by the day in private homes, this being looked upon as domestic work, and the wages of domestics are not taxable. The matter was submitted to the Unemployment Board, which has declared that wages paid to part-time or casual employees, whether on a time or piecework basis, are taxable by the employer at the time of payment. Thus wages or salary paid to dressmakers employed in ’private homes are subject to tax. UNEMPLOYMENT IN DENMARK. The Minister for Social Affairs has presented three Bills for fighting unemployment. The first Bill deala with the subsidy from public funds for the employment of additional workers. The second Bill deals with the introduction of the 40-hour week for certain public and private works carried out in connection with the fight against unemployment. Conditions fixed by collective agreements are guaranteed for such works carried out with the aid of public funds. The third Bill prohibits all overtime in handicraft and industrial undertakings, in building works, transport operations and trade. The Bills have been referred to a special committee. EMPLOYMENT FOR BOYS. During this year the Wellington Citizens’ Boy Unemployment Committee has found positions for 529 boys, 395 of whom are permanently employed. The secretary of the committee said that of the permanent positions 96 were in the country. The total number of boys registered at present was 584, including 70 matriculated boys whom the committee was finding difficulty in placing. So far this month 64 boys had been placed in employment, while there had been 52 new registrations. All the committee was able to do was to keep pace with the new registrations; it was not able to overcome the major difficulty of finding employment for the 500 boys already on its books. It would take a campaign or a special effort of some sort to absorb those boys. Positions on farms were becoming more plentiful, stated, the secretary to an Evening Post reporter, and the committee would welcome applications from boys who were willing to go to the country. In every case satisfactory living conditions were insisted upon, and the farmer was asked to provide the boy with opportunities to learn farming and to give him liot less than 5s a week pocket money. NEW WORLDS. At a demonstration in the Albert Hall, organised by the Westminster Catholic Federation, the Archbishop of Liverpool said that London and not Moscow was the birthplace of Communism, and England, not Russia, was its Galilee, for it was in the reading room of the British Museum that Karl Marx made his first studies of economic conditions. Nowadays one came across many young people who were attracted to Communism in the belief that a social experiment in economics was being carried out in Russia, and they said it ought to be given a sporting chance. They had the romantic ’ idea that Russia was engaged on the gallant task of making a workers’ Utopia, where every one would be more or less poor but perfectly happy. Nothing could be further from the truth. The nearest approach 'to Soviet Russia the world had ever known was ancient Sparta, with its despotism, its secret police, and its cold-blooded, calculating cruelty. THE BUILDING SUBSIDY SCHEME. Mr E. C.. Sutcliffe, secretary of the Christchurch branch of the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners, expressea the opinion that, while some pi the provisions attaching to the building subsidy scheme were fair, others were not. “It is an attempt, if a faulty one, to do good,” he said. ’ 0 . “I could understand, said Mr Sutcliffe, “ the subsidy scheme being of some use to the wage-earner when forms had to be submitted setting out bis wages, showing he was genuinely unemployed, and bearing bis signature for the moneys received. But, under the proposed scheme, houses will be started by some who have a section on the quiet, or will acquire one on some deferred payment system from a financial concern. .Then this person will, make a job for himself at the expense of the unemployment funds. He will engage a lad, and although this lad may not be a contributor to the unemployment fund, a job will be made for hit* at the fund’s expense. And the legitimate worker in the industry, the wage-earner, will not get a job except on relief work or in a camp. This sort of thing is going to cost the Unemployment Board * thousands. “A further extremely bad feature is the provision that a subsidy will be paid only on work done on the job. This means that joinery, plumbing, and other work, which can be done better in a workshop, will be tinkered up on the person for whom the work is being done will in this case certainly get what he is paying for—something cheap and of doubtful quality. Tins work was subsidised under the scheme last year, and I cannot see any reason for its discontinuance this year—unless, perhaps, under the scheme last year some sharp practice was indulged in at the board’s expense, and this is its attempt to get even. If that is the case, the board this year has admitted to the benefits of the scheme a. class, the speculative builder, who will show the board as many points as a porcupine. Subsidising building is bad in principle, but 1 suppose it must be endured in the present circumstances.” , , £ “If builders don’t take advantage ot this scheme they do not want help, is the opinion of Mr W. H. Winsor, secretary to the Canterbury Builders Association. “It is a great opportunity, be said “to get something for nothing. Mr Winsor said he bad just received copies of the forms of application lor the subsidy and also the conditions under winch the scheme was to operate, and he was picking out the main facts for persons who proposed to take advantage of the scheme. The subsidy was to be paid to the owners of the buildings only.;.he said, and there was no specific restriction as to the class of building winch could be done under the scheme. Owners, however had to give reasons for applying for the subsidy, and before any subsidised work could be undertaken application had to be made to the Unemployment Board, and its decision was final. A building

contractor was allowed to book wages to himself if actively employed on the job, for the actual time worked, based on current award rates. No subsidy was allowable on wages which were in excess by more than 5 per cent, of the estimate given in the application for authority. A provision of interest to builders was that no restriction was imposed regarding the source from which labour could be recruited. Under the previous scheme it had been necessary to secure men through the Unemployment Bureau. The Unemployment Board, however, asked employers to remember that the necessity for relief was greater, all other things being equal, in the case of married men. A 40-hour week was to be worked except where strong economic reasons made some other arrangement desirable, and then only with the approval of the board. In country work, however, the hours could be 48 a week. It was stipulated that nothing in the conditions of the scheme was to interfere with the wages or conditions of any award or industrial agreement, and builders had to protect their workers under the Workers Compensation Act. j UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF IN AUSTRALIA. Two Australian States have recently revised the payments and method of relief for unemployed'workers. Both New South Wales and Victoria have substituted a relief works scheme in place of the dole. The rates of pay in New South Wales are as follows:

Under the dole system the unemployed were allowed sustenance on the following weekly basis: —Single men, 5s 4-Jd; married, men, no children, 8s 3Jd; with one child, 13/3Jd; two or three children, 18s; four or five children, 21s 2d; six or seven children, 25s 2d. The rates of pay in Victoria will be 8s a week for single men, 13s a week for married men without children, with 2s Gd a week for each child up to the number of eight, when the amount paid will total 335. In addition to this there is an extra allowance of 2s 011 per week in those cases where there are unemployed children over 16 years of age, but this allowance is made in respect of only one child per family over 16 years of age. The scheme will operate over the whole State, and it is expected that 20,000 men will be brought under it. The existing sustenance allowances will be given to. unemployed persons in destitute circumstances, who are - not physically fit to perform labour on relief works. Unemnloyed persons who are physically lit will be given part-time work in place of the present dole allowance. ‘ln the engagement of the men the roster system will be enforced. -

Per Hours week. of work. Single men o/M 6 Married men, no children 15/7 10 „ one child .. 20/5 13 „ two children 21/10 14 „ three children 24/11 16 i „ four children •28/1 18 „ ‘ five children 31/2 20 1 „ six children . 34/2 22 „ seven children 37/5 24