UNEMPLOYMENT COMMITTEE

Taranaki Daily News, 13 January 1932, Page 12

UNEMPLOYMENT COMMITTEE

WORK IN NORTH TARANAKI. DEPUTATION FROM THE MEN. The North Taranaki Unemployment Committee met at New Plymouth yesterday. Present: Messrs. J. Brown (chairman), H. V. S. Griffiths, J. S. Connett, R. W. D. Robertson and J. W. Darby. The cliairrrian reported that at the last meeting a deputation representing the 'men had waited on the committee and stated that there were some complaints among the men as to discontent on some of the jobs. He had been round some of the works and made inquiries, but had not heard of any complaints. The Rev. R. B. Gosnell and Mr. B. Thorne waited on the committee. It was explained that in order to facilitate and place on a satisfactory footing negotiations between relief workers and the committee, Messrs. Gosnell and Thorne had been appointed by the men to convey their views and requests to the committee. Two meetings of relief workers had been held. The men had expressed gratification at the way in which their representations had been received by the committee, local bodies and Government officials.

Regarding work on the stock route, Frankley Bead, Mr. Thorne passed on a request from the workers there that some provision be made for their transport back to town after their day’s work. He pointed out that some of the men were not accustomed to the class of work they had to ■ do, and found it very fatiguing, and it was suggested that a lorry be provided to bring them back to town in the evening, the men for the western end of the town to be dropped at the corner of Dawson and Devon Streets and the men for the other end to be taken as far as the Borough Council yard. They were prepared to work part of their dinner hour so that the time taken in bringing'them back to town should, not come out of their working period. The chairman said he would see what could be done regarding transport. He pointed out it would mean sending out a lorry specially. Mr. Griffiths pointed out that the work .was within the borough, and it would mean giving preferential treatment to men on relief work, as the ordinary employees of the council were not conveyed home from work "Which they were doing within the borough. NOT FITTED FOR WORK. Mr. Thorne said these men could not be compared with the ordinary employees of the council, as in many cases they were men who ordinarily were not fitted for this class of work, and because of the scanty amount of work they got were suffering from malnutrition and were further incapacitated from heavy 1 woi'k on that account. He felt they were entitled to some special consideration. 1 _ Mr. Thorne next referred to the reduction in the amount of work offered the men and additional “standing down.” He said some men had been stood down two weeks out of three. He had written to Mr. Coates, Minister in charge of unemployment, on the subject, and he asked if the committee could not do to support him in the endeavour to have the standing-down time reduced. . The question had really arisen through the decision of the Unemployment Board, and this local committee could not do much, said the chairman. The committee could allocate work only in accordance with the funds placed at its disposal, and if they would not permit of all men getting full time the work had to be rationed. One of the difficulties was that some men to whom work was allotted secured other work . and then failed to let the committee know, and thereby kept other men out of jobs. So far as the standing down time was concerned the Hospital Board had to meet the men in their stand-down weeks, and it was a pest to the board. He could not say whether the Government would alter the scheme. If the committee received the money it would allot every man on the books the full time. After thanking the committee for the hearing and saying the men appreciated the fact that the committee was doing everything it could in the interests of unemployed men, the deputation withdrew. ALLOCATION OF WORK. It was reported that the Borough Council lorry had arrived at one job with its complement of men and a number of others had arrived later expecting to be placed on the work. The foreman knew nothing of them and they had no order to show they had been allotted to that particular job. The secretary (Mr. C. P. Smith) said that the practice of giving men orders had been discontinued. They were required to report to the borough or the county, or to whichever body was providing the work, on the morning of starting their work, and that ouglit to work out satisfactorily. If on the following days other means could be found for reaching their employment without the necessity of going to the appointed meeting place there should be no difficulty about that. The committee pointed out tlidt so lon<r as the men went to the borough or "county yard on the first morning that should be sufficient, but that only the men wno met there should be put •on the respective jobs. Otherwise the foremen would not know which men had been allotted to them.

The secretary said that a protest had been made to the Commissioner at the amount allocated to the New Plymouth committee on account of the fact that there were few single men on the register. It was pointed out thatdf there were no single men on the list the committee should receive more liberal treatment to meet the needs of the married men. A reply had been received that there was some difficulty in the way and the Commissioner was not prepared to alter the system at present. Thanks were expressed for the suggestion and an intimation made that something of the same kind had been received from other committees.

A number of applications for assistance under the No. 5 scheme were received and dealt with, the secretary reporting that under this scheme with the applications in hand 41 would be placed. Referring to “over the fence” work for farmers under No. 5 scheme, Mr. Connett said the applications came through the Taranaki County Council and had all been inquired into before receiving the council’s approval. council realised that having approved the applications it had a certain amount of responsibility to the committee and the Government to see that the work was satisfactorily carried out. It had therefore asked the inspector to inspect the work being done on the farms and to report to the council. He thought it was the policy of the board to encourage this, as it was work of a reproductive character, and preference should be o-iven to applicants for this class of labour over works undertaken m town, which in many eases were done solely for the purpose of providing work.