DISMISSALS AT ADDINGTON.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20488, 5 March 1932, Page 14

DISMISSALS AT ADDINGTON.

PENSIONS GREATER THAN WAGES. STATEMENT BY MR ARMSTRONG. [From Our Parliament art Keforter.] WELLINGTON, March 4. The anomaly under which men had been dismissed from the Addington workshops to take the Government pension at a higher figure than their wage was pointed out by Mr 11. T. Armstrong (Lab., Christehurcli East), speaking iu the House of Bepresentatives this afternoon. Dealing jvith dismissals andwdge reductions, Mr Armstrong appealed to the Government not to repeat its previous method of dealing with Government employees, because the effects of the ten per cent, cut were still being adversely felt throughout the country. At least ho hoped the Government would apply commonsense to its methods of handling the men. Throe cases of returned soldiers being dismissed from Addington were quoted. One man receiving a wage of £3 17s 6d weekly was put off, and immediately he stopped work he was entitled to receive a military pension of £4 lis 6d, or 14s a week more than his wage. Another man, a carpenter, received a wage of £4 10s, and when ho was dismissed he received a pension of £4 17s 6d, and still another, a painter, was in a similar position, being entitled to a pension greater than his wage. "There are men," Mr Armstrong said, "who can get more from the Government by not working." The Hon. J. A. Young: What pensions did they get in addition to their wages! Mr Armstrong: They forfeited their pensions because they preferred to work, but the Government prefers to ,have them out of employment and to pay them more. This is the means the Government adopts to balance its Budget, but it will never balance the Budget or anything else. We will never have a balanced Budget until wo have a balanced Government. I appeal to the Government not to repeat its retrenchment policy of last year, but to employ somo common-sense method of dealing with the problem.