SUBSIDIZED WORK

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 154, 25 March 1939, Page 12

SUBSIDIZED WORK

Whittling Down No. 13 Scheme GOVERNMENT’S POLICY Dominion Special Service. AUCKLAND, March 24. It is apparent that the Government proposes to whittle down the No. 13 scheme of subsidized employment so far as possible with the abolition from Marell 31 of the Employment Promotion Fund and the unemployment tax that kept it in existence. Indicative of this policy is the fact that men of CO years or more who were working under the No. 13 scheme or on other relief employment are being told that their engagements will terminate after March 31. They will then be eligible for the age benefits under the social security scheme, which are less than the wages they were drawing from the Employment Promotion Fund. Temporary clerks engaged in employment promotion work have been told they will continue in their present duties. These do not come within the scope of the Social Security Act. It is now obvious that the depleted employment Promotion branch, with the newly-appointed district employment officer Air. T. G. Feilder at its head, will remain under the Labour Department. In its policy of whittling down subsidized employment the Government is expected to achieve much of its purpose by transferring many men directly to the payroll of other departments. The Public Works Department is expected to carry the heaviest burden and bear the 'financial brunt of a good deal of the No. 13 scheme work done for local bodies, but it it pointed out that there are other departments which legitimately should pay for the cost of work done for them.