EMPLOYEE MAKES SUGGESTION

Taranaki Daily News, 28 October 1935, Page 7

EMPLOYEE MAKES SUGGESTION

(To the Editor.) Sir, —May I encroach on your valuable space to comment on a few of the points raised by. your correspondents regarding factory wages. “Fact’ry ’And” seems to have made a more vitriolic than reasoned statement of the case. I myself am a first assistant in a dairy factory and have had several years at the game, so I speak with a fair knowledge of the subject under discussion. Although I quite agree with “Fact’ry ’And” that we ought to have some of the cuts restored I must say that I can’t help feeling a certain amount of sympathy with a good many farmers in the great reduction in income caused by the recent depression. If prices keep up as they are at present, there seems no reason why we should not get all our cuts back, because as your correspondent, “Another Cow Cockie,” says, we certainly do earn them. I would like to say that I really admire the fair way in which this correspondent has treated the subject, and I think that, except fop a few extremists, most of the farming community would, in their heart of hearts, agree with him, even if they would not say so out loud. There is another matter which all the correspondents seem to have overlooked. It has now become practically compulsory for a prospective first-assistant or manager to attend the dairy diploma course at Massey College. over a period of three months each winter for three years if he is lucky and passes all exams. If he is not so lucky the time is four years. Now this course costs the student, at a very mean estimate, £35 each winter, which he has to pay himself, and loss of wages while away from the factory. If companies could see their way to subsidise these men, say £1 for. £l, I think they would .all gain in the better service they would get from their employees, as it is more and more evident that the scientific side of cheese and buttermaking, not to mention an organised system of factory management, is becoming more important every year. With the present wages it is a pretty hard job for men to save enough to go to Massey College, and for a married man it is well-nigh impossible. If picked men in the different factories were subsidised they would have an incentive to work harder for their companies, with a resultant saving to the farmer. By the by, “Another Cow Cockie,” they teach us at Massey College how to keep a starter more than 10 days without it going off, although I' think most managers can keep one. a bit over that time also. “Some Farm” says he was prepared to take a job in a Central Taranaki factory but the list was so long that he would get grey-headed waiting. I might state that there has been a dearth of “good” men for factory work this season. Really good men for factory work are few and far between, so if “Some Farm” is a really good man he could not have tried very hard I am afraid. In conclusion I would like to take this opportunity of stating that in all the factories in which I have worked I have always received reasonably considerate treatment by the farmers and directors. Although we had our wages cut, it was done as a last expedient, and I believe these cuts will all be restored voluntarily when the farmers have recovered somewhat from the rigours of the recent depression.—l. am, etc.,

MASSEY STUDENT.