POLICY STATEMENT?

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20891, 24 August 1939, Page 10

POLICY STATEMENT?

FREEZING WORKERS’ WAGES MINISTER CALLED IN QUESTION (By Telegraph.—Special to Times) WELLINGTON, Wednesday A question relating to a recent statement by the Hon. H. T. Armstrong on the earnings of freezing workers was addressed by Mr s. G. Holland (Christchurch North;, in the House of Representatives today to the acting Prime Minister, the Hon. P. Fraser. Mr Holland asked “whether the Minister's attention had been drawn to a report of a statement made yesterday in Christchurch by the Minister of Housing to a large meeting of unemployed workers, in which the Minister announced his opinion that the freezing companies should contribute toward the maintenance of freezing industry workers to tide them over between freezing seasons. "Is the Minister's opinion to be interpreted as an announcement of the Government's policy in relation to seasonal workers? Will the acting-Prime Minister direct the attention of the Minister of Housing to the fact that the Government Statistician’s figures show that every person engaged in the freezing industry, including youths and girls, receiving in cash an average wage of £5 6s 7<J for 52 consecutive weeks of the J 937-38 year? “Will the ading-Prime Minister take into consideration when preparing future legislation the matter of requiring those workers who are in receipt of very high wages to tide their fellow-workers in receipt of lower wages over the between seas-m period, thereby insuring a more equitable distribution of the wages and salaries paid in the industry, instead of loadin-r the cost on to the already t overburdened producer?"