DISMISSAL OF P. AND T. MEN

Taranaki Daily News, 5 December 1930, Page 9

DISMISSAL OF P. AND T. MEN

: REDUCED WORK FOR CASUALS. EXPLANATION BY THE MINISTER. By Telegraph.—Press Association. ! Last ‘ Night. Notices of dismissal served on casual employees in the Post and Telegraph Department in the city and in other centres throughout the province resulted in representations being made to the PostmasterGeneral, the Hon. J. B. Donald, recently by several members of Parliament.'^:/, Invited to make a statement on the. position Mr. Donald said to-day: “On account of the bad times there is no work for these men. We are not receiving so many applications for telephone extensions. As we have not the work we cannot keep these men, mostly linesmen, engaged. They are: only casuals. ’ We have only a certain amount of loan money to spend and if we kept these men on we would have to put off a lot of permanent employees. It is not my wish, or the wish of the officers at the head of the department, to get rid of any men, but we have neither the work nor the money to keep them employed.”