RELIEF WORKS

Otago Witness, Issue 3510, 21 June 1921, Page 25

RELIEF WORKS

QUESTION OF LOW PAY. ALLEGED BREACH OF AGREEMENT. A deputation from tho Otago branch of the New Zealand Workers’ Union waited upon Mr C. E. Statham, M.P., on the 14th inst. to bring under his notice and enlist his sympathy in what was considered a breach bv the Government of the agreement covering public workers, the paying of less than the rate provided to the men sent to the various relief works under the department. Mr S. Boreham acted as spokesman. Mr Boreham stated that the union had given instructions that Mr Statham should be waited upon and his attention drawn to the fact that the Dunedin l abour Office was cutting down the wages fixed by the agreement entered into on May 20 between the Minister of Public Works and the union, the wages of men now being sent into the country being between from one-quarter to one-third less than the rate specified in the agreement. This agreement Mr Boreham produced. The fact was that single men were being sent to country work at 10s per day and married men at 12s per day, whereas the agreement provided a wage of 15s per day. Mr Boreham said he had been prepared to take the word of the Acting Prime Minister tliat there was no reduction, but he found that the Acting Prime Minister must have made a mistake. The reduced wages were being paid. It was not right that the Public Works Department should take advantage of men being in adverse circumstances, and ask them to go into the country at a wage on which they could not live. Everything in the country was dearer than in town. The men knew they had to put up with a certain amount of hardship. The Government had promised accommodation to men on public works,, but the department was at its wits’ end to get houses up. The result was that down in the Gatlins district

—a most, outlandish place—men had to live in a 6ft x Bft tent. Chatto Creek was the only place where there was a canteen, and in the other places the men wore dependent upon tho lccil grocer. Their food was accordingly dear. The union had gone to considerable trouble in getting the agreement, which, in the first, place, had cost it, £2OO. He considered the Minister of Public Works (Hon. J. G. Coates) to be a fair-minded man, and the union looked to him to keep to the agreement; it coub not be treated as a “scrap of paper.” In conclusion. Mr Boreham said that the unemployment question in New Zealand was perturbing the mind of Labour and was becoming acute. Mr Statham, in his reply, said that he was only an ordinary Member of Parliament, although he hoped to be something more later on, and an ordinary member found when he got to the House that his power was not very great. He was concerned —and every right-minded man was concerned —that there was a lot of unemployment in the dominion. Every man confronted with the spectre of starvation in his home had a grievance. He wanted to say right away that ho believed that the principle of the Government taking a man’s services and paying a low wage was quite a wrong one. He had considered ar one lime that the unemployed might do temporarily engaged at low pay to tide them over a difficult time, but with riper years he could see that that principle was absolutely wrong. With regard to the local Labour Office, Mr Statham pointed cut that it was only administrative; it was not responsible for the amount of tne wage paid. Tho officials were there only to carry out instructions. The only thing he could do was to get in touch with those associated with him and see if something could not be done. He was quite sure that Mr Coates would be sympathetic. He could not, quite understand the Minister having agreed to the terms upon which the men were sent to the public works and there was, to say the least of it, a moral breach of tho agreement. The reason that somo men would accept the wage was merely that if they did not, they felt their wives and children would starve, and the position was that advantage was being taken of their position. He was beingapproached almost daily by men out of work and men genuinely trying to get work, and he believed himself that the Government could give a lot, of work to the unemployed and pay the authorised rate of wages. If the Government were getting value for the money, and the money were spent on reproductive works, there was no reason why there should be any unemployment. ' It would not pay the Government to keep the works of the country standing still. He would do ais best to stir the Government up and see that something was done, and the whole matter put on a proper footing. Mr I>. Smith, a member of the deputation, drew attention to a case of what ho believed to bo injustice in regard to returned soldiers. He said that only that morning several returned men, married, had been refused work, and but a short time afterwards a returned man, single, had been successful in his application. Mr Statham made a note of the name, proposing to make inquiry. Mr Boreham returned the thanks of himself and the others to Mr Statham for their reception. He said he know that they had entrusted tlieir case to able hands nnd looked forward to a better state of n Hairs.