DUNEDIN DISMISSALS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 133, 7 June 1937, Page 8

DUNEDIN DISMISSALS

LABOUR MEMBERS’ PROTEST EMPLOYEES OF THE CITY I Ter Press Association. 1 DUNEDIN, June 5. The cause of 104 employees of the City Corporation being dismissed from works and water departments was directly attributed this morning by Mr J. W. Munro, M.P., to the defeat of the £lOO,OOO loan proposal at the recent poll. “With the assistance of vicious newspaper propaganda and misleading statements from the ratepayers’ committee, the ratepayers deliberately voted against the loan so that the council would not be able to assist the Government in finding work for the unemployed during the winter.” said Mr Munro. “The adoption of the proposal would not only have enabled the council to retain the service of the men dismissed but probably would have permitted the employment of another hundred men.” The town clerk stated that the men paid off were not strictly permanent employees but were really additions to the staff. Those engaged by the water department were subsidised workers. “The main grievance expressed by the dismissed men is that they have to stand de-.vn for two weeks before being eligible for sustenance,” added the clerk. “Efforts have been made to induce the Government to waive this regulation, but this would involve its waiver throughout New Zealand, Hon. F. Jones had pointed that out.”