COUNCIL PROTEST

Waikato Independent, Volume XXX, Issue 2425, 9 December 1930, Page 5

COUNCIL PROTEST

WAIPA COUNTY’S VIEWS. UNEMPLOYMENT WAGE. N At the monthly meeting of the Waipa County Council, held yesterday, an emphatic protest Avas lodged against the Avagcs of unemployed relief ;woj\kcrs being fixed at 14/- per day. \ This protest folloAved the reading of •a copy of a statement issued by the Unemployment Board outlining the terms and conditions on AA'hich it A\'as prepared to grant subsidies to local bodies, education boards and school committees on works for the relief of unemployment. The subsidy was on a£2 for £1 basis on estimated cost, including materials, of suitablp relief works comprising capital and revenue expenditure. Tho work Avas to contain at least 50 per cent, labour, based on Avages at 14/- per day. The subsidy Avas limited to expenditure incurred up to and including 31st January, 1931. Labour had to be engaged through the Government Labour Bureau. This offer Avas made by the Unemployment Board to relieve distress this Christmas, and was not to be regarded as establishing a precedent. The clerk (Mr W. J. Civil) stated that the council had no suitable work for unemployed. Cr Livingstone moved that a protest should be entered against the payment of 14/- a day. This met with the unanimous approval of the other members of the council. Cr Peacock desired that the resolution should also stipulate that Avherever possible unemployed labour should be engaged on piece-work, and not on day Avork, as Avas set forth in the statement. After further discussion a resolution embodying the Tavo aforementioned points stressed Avas carried unanimously. ; s ‘