“ LOWER PAID MEN CARRYING BURDEN.”

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19080, 27 May 1930, Page 9

“ LOWER PAID MEN CARRYING BURDEN.”

CR. PARLANE CRITICISES 40-HOUR WEEK PROPOSAL

f ‘lt is ridiculous on the face of it. It amounts to this—that they are proposing to tax the lower paid workers, that the more wealthy may be excused. It can safely be assumed that the men themselves will never agree to the proposal,” said Councillor E. Parlane, secretary of the Canterbury Drivers’ Union, this morning in criticising Councillor A. E. Armstrong’s scheme, which was discussed at last night’s meeting of the City Council. The scheme provides that all council employees employed hourly should accept a forty-four week with a corresponding reduction in salary, and that all members of the staff in receipt of more than £250 per annum should accept a 5 per cent reduction. Councillor Parlane pointed out that the average labourer on the council who was paid on an hourly basis earned only £228 a year. A loss of four hours’ work a ■week would represent to him a reduction of 10 per cent, whereas it w’as proposed that those earning more than £250 a year should submit to a 5 per cent reduction. Most of the council workers, too, were paying superannuation dues amounting to from 5 per cent to 9 per cent of their earnings. They could hardly afford to sacrifice any more. Another anomaly was that, according to the wording of the proposal, a great number of the outside staff were unaffected by it. The drivers were not employed by the hour and thus escaped that provision, whilst the lowest paid of them w r ere not earning £250.