MOA CREEK IRRIGATION WORKS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3522, 13 September 1921, Page 24

MOA CREEK IRRIGATION WORKS.

A WORKER’S COMPLAINT. On the sth inst. we (the Otago Daily Times) received a complaint from a married man who bad just returned from Mo a Creek after working on the irrigation works for five weeks. In the first place, he alleges a breach of contract, as he was, he says, engaged in Dunedin at 12s per day for the first fortnight, and thereafter on contract. Our informant was, until the recent retrenchment, errs ployed for 11 years as a permanent casual in the locomotive branch of the Railway Department. Immediately on arrival at Moa Creek he was placed on contract, and this he regards as a breaoh of faith, and thinks the facts should be made public in order that married men especially should understand the difficulties. The fare to Omakau _is 12-s lOd, a night’s lodging 10s, a bed ticx 21s, a shovel 10s, and a bag of coal 10s 6d. The/bed and shovel may be returned and the money will be refunded, but the items mentioned ar.e deducted in the first place from the first month’s pay. The price for the work ranges from Is Sd to_6s 6<l per yard, and our informant received a total of money and kind to the value of £ll 10s Id. His wife received £3 11s, and he himself received 3s in cash for five weeks’ work. In addition he was credited wdth his railway fare (12s lOd), his night’s lodging account at Omakau (10s), grocer’s account (£6 4s), and lie received 11s 3d for unused stores. It will be seen, therefore, that his five weeks’ work did not provide him with sufficient to maintain two homes properly. Questioned by our representative, the worker did not complain as to the price fixed, as one gang of experienced men are said to be making 17s per day. But he suggests that married men who have not had experience of irrigation work, which in this case requires a certain amount of skill and knowledge of explosives, cannot earn a living wage, and certainly not sufficient to maintain separate homes as well as the camp at the works. Inquiries were made from the local office of the Department of Labour as to the conditions of engagement. The department states that men are engaged at a maximum of 10s per day if single and 12s if married. These conditions mean that in no case •will men be permitted to earn more than the maximum over the working days in each month. A few of the men who have left Moa Creek have now been engaged for the drainage works at Middlemarch at 15s per day (our informant amongst the number), and he states that nine men left simultaneously with him, and that men are constantly arriving at and leaving the works.