UNEMPLOYMENT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23500, 14 May 1938, Page 14

UNEMPLOYMENT

PUBLICATION OF RETURNS METHOD OF CLASSIFICATION PRESENT SYSTEM DEFENDED TAXATION ANALOGY DRAWN (Per United Press Association) WELLINGTON, May 13. “ It is vastly different in principle to class as unemployed a man who. having registered, is compulsorily set to work, often on a job without value and under conditions which differ entirely from standard or award conditions on the ground that it is only a relief job, than it is to class as unemployed men who are placed in useful productive employment under conditions that have been the subject of an agreement between the workers and their employers in accordance with the provisions of our industrial legislation,” said the Minister of Labour XMr H. T. Armstrong) in a statement today.

"I have been accused of juggling with the official unemployment figures.” the Minister said, “ because when we came into office I included in the unemployment returns all those who were said to have been provided with full-time employment with assistance from the Employment Fund, whilst to-day they are excluded from the official unemployment returns. Quite an amount of the so-called full-time employment existing when we assumed office had been started only just prior to the last elections, and at the date of the elections 21,267 of the registered men had been excluded from the published figures by the previous Government on the grounds that they had been absorbed in full-time employment. Men Previously Excluded “ Now let us see,” Mr Armstrong «aid, “whether this number should have been excluded or not. This is how they are made up:— “Six hundred and twenty-seven were styled 4A men. These, mostly young, virile men, were compelled either to go off relief or accept work for farmers. The conditions of their employment were that they still drew relief pay of 10s a week personally from the bureau, and the fanner had to provide them with shelter and pay them at least 5s a week. Only a very few appear to have reported receiving more than this minimum.

“ Two thousand eight hundred were compelled to take contract work on farms scrub-cutting, etc. They had no say whatever in the terms of the contract made for them, based on the assumption that they could, if they were good men, earn £3 a week, which at that time was less than the recognised labourer’s rate. If work were, not accepted they were stood down from relief.

“ One thousand and three were in camps receiving either 17s 6d a week w.ch food or 27s 6d a week and finding themselves in food.

“ Nine hundred and seventeen were waterside workers receiving sustenance relief because they were earning less than the recognised relief rate, but these were classed as full-time workers because they had to attend daily at the waterfront. To-day, if any waterside worker is granted sustenance he is included in the official return.

“ Seven hundred and eighty-seven v/ere in afforestation camps and had up to just prior to the election been in receipt of 17s 6d a week, but been raised to 9s a day, an arbitrary relief rate which differs entirely in principle from the present public works agreement rate fixed , after proper consultation with the union concerned.

“Approximately 4000 were employed by the Public Works Department, but at relief rates of 9s or 12s a day without any of the other conditions applicable to permanent Public Works Department workers. ’ “ The balance were scattered with other departments or with local bodies, but all were exempt from participating in award conditions by the clause inserted in the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act which we had removed at the first opportunity. A Change of System “It can be seen,” Mr Armstrong said, “that there was every justification for continuing to show these men with the unemployment figures, but long before September, 1937, when the practice was discontinued, the position had entirely changed as all full-time v/orkers, whether or not subsidised from the Employment Promotion Fund, were engaged under the recognised standard conditions determined' in accordance with the laws of the country. “It was noticed from the speech of the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Adam Hamilton), “that he was indulging in offering challenges to the Prime'Minister,” the Minister said. “May I suggest a double challenge to Mr Hamilton —(1) That he cannot find proof of a single person classed as full-time employed assisted from the employment funds at the time of the election who was in receipt of full standard award conditions: (2) that it is impossible for him to show that there are any excluded from the unemployment figures to-day who are not fully employed under recognised trade union conditions. It would be no more correct to show these men as unemployed to-day merely on the ground that finance in some degree has been provided for their employment from the Employment Promotion Fund, which is a revenue account, than it would be to class all highways board men as unemployed because their work is financed largely from a tax revenue account. Principle of the Act “Whilst, therefore, it is a fact that the figures relating to men in full-time employment subsidised from the Employment Promotion Fund have not been published with the figures of registered unemployed since September, 1937, I must emphasise that the present method of publication, which excludes the fulltime figures, is the same as that introduced by the previous Administration in September, 1935. I have shown that the full-time figure of 21.267, which was excluded at that particular time, should not have been excluded because those men were still essentially relief workers. “Regarding the expenditure of money from the Employment Promotion Fund and the reduced number of men remaining without employment,” the Minister concluded. “I would emphasise that the Act. as drawn un bv the previous Government, anticipated the creation of employment as a first charge on the fund and was designed only to pay sustenance when employment could

not be created. As to following that principle, which was laid down by the previous Government but not acted upon to any great extent, useful employment has been found on worthwhile work, financed partially from the Employment Promotion Fund, with the Public Works Department. and through local opportunity for industry to absorb surplus labour.”