TASK WORK

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 71, 24 March 1934, Page 12

TASK WORK

(To the Editor.) Sir, —As one who has been employed upon relief works in the Lower Hutt for some time, and just now employed upon task work apparently put into operation upon the instructions of the Unemployment Board, I would like to say that I object to this method "of ekeing out an existence upon relief works. The present position is ; this. A certain amount'- of work is measured out by the foreman to be done by each relief worker or group of relief workers of the same classifiea-;; tion, and if not 4pne I have been told that one's pay is'stopped until it has been done. ; Some of the young men of about: twenty years of age have been able to finish their tasks, so I have been told, in about half the time it would take an^ elderly man to do, and this being the case it will mean that the foreman on the; job will have instructions from headquarters to give relief workers-more to accomplish. ■

It has to be borne in mind that a young man of about twenty, who has not been to the war and. suffered serious physical disabilities as a result thereof, is much better equipped for task work than the returned soldier referred to. When I was employed for about six months on a road-widening scheme the , foreman in charge had instructions to inquire into the physical condition of every man on the job, and to give him employment suitable to his state of health, and this being done everything worked smoothly amongst the men. I remember working next to a married man' who had a fairly large family, and who was severely injured in the war. He could not even use his hands, but.the job given'to him was directing the traffic, for which he received the full allocation,.;namely >£1 17s 6d. The task work system is wrong in principle.—l am, etc., ■ ■

AGAINST TASK WOEE.