ON BETTER FOOTING.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 490, 27 June 1932, Page 7

ON BETTER FOOTING.

Changes in the Building Subsidy Scheme. With the removal of certain anomalies from the building subsidy scheme as the result of representations made to the Unemployment Board by both employers and employees in the industry, the scheme is now on a better basis than it was originally, states Mr E. C. Sutcliffe, secretary of the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners. In discussing the alterations to the scheme announced by the Minister of Employment, Mr Sutcliffe said that the scheme had been altered out of recognition. The amount of the subsidy to be paid was perhaps the most important factor in the whole scheme. There was an impression abroad that under the wages clause, as originally set out the wages of a tradesman would be reduced to £3 7s 6d a week, approximately a reduction of 25 per cent. There was a later clause which stipulated that for jobs lasting over twelve months the subsidy would be reduced to 12s 6d. If the former calculation were carried into effect it would have meant that wages would have been reduced to £1 2s 6d a week after July, 1933. This phase of the question had been brought prominently to the notice of the Unemployment Board, and it at once agreed that such a construction was absurd. “ The fact remained, however,” added Mr Sutcliffe, “ that that was the position set out. The board accordingly promised to insert a clause which would put the wages position beyond question. He believed this had been done, because the following proposition had been accepted by the board: ‘ Nothing in these regulations shall be taken to interfere with or alter in any way the wages and conditions provided for in the award for the classes of workers concerned.’ This clause was to have been incorporated in the regulations at once so as to put the subsidy on an understandable basis.”

Mr Sutcliffe quoted figures in support of his contentions, and concluded by saying that the scheme was now on a better basis than formerly, and to get the operatives in the building industry back into employment would only require the thawing-out of some of the present frozen capital.