Reduction of Staffs

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 119, 10 August 1927, Page 8

Reduction of Staffs

Position of Local Bodies Curtailments at Mount Albert FACED with the necessity for economies, nearly all Auckland local bodies have lately had to consider reductions of their casual staffs. In view of the unemployment position, they have as far as possible endeavoured to avoid drastic curtailments. Nevertheless, a good many men have lost their billets.

JpUXT ALBERT Borough Council A has lately found Itself obliged to put off numbers of men. The pr.ocess has been carried out in instalments, but the manner in which it has been effected has not escaped criticism. Last year Mount Albert carried a loan of £750,000, the expenditure to be spread over 14 years. In the early stages of this year the council was employing nearly 250 men, but after

the elections the new council adopted a policy of shortening hands. It was claimed that on its former payroll the council would have been compelled to raise all the loan money within a few years, instead of spreading the expenditure over the stipulated period. Among the charges that critics of the administration make is the assertion that the selection of the men to be discharged has been taken out of the hands of the engineer. A SUN representative who made inquiries at the Mount Albert Council Chambers could get no Information from either the town clerk or the engineer. It is a curious feature of the present system that neither of those officials is allowed to give information to the Press —a practice that probably prevails, to such a degree, nowhere else in the Dominion. When the question was referred to the Mayor, Mr. L. E. Rhodes, he said that he could not say offhand how

many men had been put off. Possibly it was about 30. He pointed out that the council could not have afforded to employ so many men as it had formerly been doing. Moreover, some of the work hitherto done by day labour had nowbeen placed in the hands of contractors, so that almost the same amount of w-ork could still be offering in the borough, though it had been taken out of the council’s hands.

COMMITTEE’S OPERATIONS Critics of the council have alleged that the factors taken into consideration when men are being discharged are not beyond reproach. The selection of the men who have to go—a number were put off last Friday—ls now- in the hands of a committee, comprising a representative of each ward of the borough. Mr. Rhodes said last night that such factors as a man’s length of service, and his dependants, were factors considered by the committee in deciding who should go. Although a few of the other local bodies found themselves obliged to shorten staffs at the beginning of the winter, they have since endeavoured to keep all their present hands going. Some have made very commend-, able efforts to avoid swrelling the ranks of the unemployed, and at the present time are only w r aiting for authority, so that they can raise money, before putting on more men. In this position is Newmarket Borough Council, which has maintained its staff at a constant level, and hopes to provide further employment when more money is available. Mount Eden Borough has also kept faith with its men throughout the winter, and is at present awaiting authority to raise more money. AVONDALE CARRIES ON At Avondale the council has been taking on men wherever possible, and has kept a staff of 40 men In fairly constant employment. It cannot put more men on at present, although there is a constant stream of inquiries, including many of the men discharged from the neighbouring borough of Mount Albert. As far as Mount Albert is concerned. the figure mentioned by the Mayor, 30, seems rather conservative. Other reports suggest that at least double that number have been put off. The Devonport Borough Council, Auckland City Council, and Auckland Harbour Board have all been keeping their main staffs in constant employment. Recently the City Tramways Department had to put off 30 men, who had been working on the tracks.