RELIEF WORKERS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 276, 20 November 1937, Page 10

RELIEF WORKERS

BONUS AND HOLIDAYS ' u Ter Tress Association. | WELLINGTON, Nov. 19. Arrangements authorised in connection with the granting of Christmas and New Year holidays and the payment o£ a Christmas bonus to relief workers were announced this evening by the Minister of Labour, Hon. H. T. Armstrong. Following the practice in past years two weeks' holiday will be granted all workers employed under Scheme 5 and to gold prdspec’.ors subsidised by the Labour Department holidays will be granted in the two weeks ending January 1 and 8. 1938, but to enable the employing authorities to pay wages due for the week ending December 25, 1937, prior to holidays, all Scheme 5 works will be closed down on Wednesday, December 22, and any men who would normally report for work on Thursday or Friday, December 23 and 24, will be paid for those days. With regard to those men employed under Scheme 13 on special rotational full-time works, works will be closed down during the two weeks ending January 1 and 8 and the men will be paid at the sustenance rates applicable to their respective classifications. These men will also receive a special Christmas bonus and their period of full-time employment will be extended for two weeks so that the holidays will not be treated as part of the aprpoved period of emplayment under this scheme. In the case of workers employed full time on subsidised works other than those approved under the special rotational full-time employment scheme, the usual practice will be followed, an approved subsidy from the employment promotion fund being paid in respect of any holidays granted provided the employing authority meets its proportion of the wages cost. The Christmas bonus will be on the same basis as last year—£2 for married men and £1 for single men. Conditions of eligibility have not yet been determined but these are at present under consideration and a further statement will be issued. Transport concessions similar to those made available in past years will be granted workers employed in the Paraparaumu camp and those employed unedr the gold prospecting scheme.