STAND DOWN PERIODS.

Southland Times, Issue 22296, 11 April 1934, Page 3

STAND DOWN PERIODS.

To the Editor.

Sir, —Since the formation of the Southland Provincial Relief Workers’ Organization it has been the endeavour of the executive to obtain for the men the abolition of the stand down period on registration, and also to encourage men to seek outside work. Our efforts have in many cases met with little success as the men state that after obtaining outside work for a short period they have had to stand down a fortnight—in some cases three weeks since the inception of the standdown week in Invercargill—and this aspect of the matter is apt to deter relief workers seeking outside work as they rightly maintain that they will have to wait too long before being allowed a start back on the relief on completion of their other work. For the information of the men concerned and the Invercargill Labour Department I wish to refer to the instructions issued to local certifying officers in May last which state: —“When an unemployed worker has once qualified for and been engaged upon relief work, and subsequently obtains private employment, he may (at the discretion of the certifying officer) be given relief work in the first week after re-registration, provided, of course, that he is in all other respects eligible to receive relief.’ This instruction, therefore, makes it possible to eliminate entirely any stand-down period after private employment that had been of short duration, or even of longer duration, when the earnings have been little better than relief.’’ There has been a fear that the standdown period will eliminate any benefit obtained by accepting private employment and we trust that the instruction of the Unemployment Board—which, by the way, the organization will see is carried out, will remove any misgivings on the part of the relief worker in this direction.—l am, etc. “EXECUTIVE R.W.0.”