RELIEF WORKERS

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 92, 15 October 1932, Page 14

RELIEF WORKERS

CLASS OF B2 MEN

POSITION IMPROVED

The position of B2 men was dealt with by the Minister of Health (the j Hon. J. A. Young) in the course of i tho Imprest Supply Bill debate in the 1 House, of Eepresentatives yesterday " evening. Tho Minister said that there should [ be no great difficulty in the future in , determining the relative responsibili- ! ties of. tho Unemployment Board and j the hospital boards in regard to B2 men. who were fit only for light work. Where work" could be found for those men the Unemployment Board would find the relative wage, but where no work was available some hospital boards had declined their obligation to, assist tho men. The Minister said that he had had a conference with the Hospital Boards' Association executive, when he had appealed to them to treat each case on its merits. . The executive seemed to be quite reasonable, and he thought that there would now be no great difficulty in regard to B2 men. He had pointed out that if the boards encountered financial difficulties the law provided an approach to the Department and to the Treasury for assistance. The classification of the men now rpst•ed with the board's medical officers, 'and the boards seemed quite prepared to tackle the problem on the basis of treating each case on its merits. In reply to a question by Mr. P. Eraser (Labour, Wellington Central), 'My. Young said he would not say that •.the question was settled, but it had been i'.mproved. The local bodies had to loalise that they had a duty to eo-oper-atte with the Unemployment Board and the hospital boards. The tendency of loiial bodies was to accept no responsibility. Local/bodies should search for suii.table work to enable as many B2 m«:n as possible to be employed. The A«'tang-Minister of. Employment had sta ted that although the Unemployment Bosaa-d had stated that B2 men should be treated as sympathetically as* possible \, it was not altogether the board's function to find the men work. It wanlied to help them. The difficulty was that the B2 men were not in a very easy class for whom to find work. Th >c Acting-Minister of Employment (the' Hon.- A. Hamilton) said that his Department was quite prepared to take charg c of the men if they could be found work. If the local bodies would find >irork the Department would pay.