DUNEDIN COUNCIL STAFF CUTS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 119, 5 June 1937, Page 5

DUNEDIN COUNCIL STAFF CUTS

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"Result of Press Propaganda Says M.P. 104 MEN PUT OFF

(By Teleeraph-

DUNEDIN, This Day. The cause Of 104 employees of the Dunedin City Corporation being dismissed from the Works and Water Departments was directiy attributed this morning by Mr J. W. Munro, M.P., to the defeat.of the £100,000 loan proposal at the recent poll. "Wit the assistance of vicxous newspaper propaganda and misleading statements from the ratepayers' eommittee, ratepayers deliberately voted against the loan, so that the council would not be able to assist the Government in finding work for the unemployed during the winter." he said. "The adoption of the proposal would not only have enabled the council to retain the service of the mep. dismissed, but would probably have permitted the employment of another hundred men." The town clerk stated that the men paid off were not strictly permanents but were really additions to the staff, those engaged by the Water Department being subsidised workers, The main grievance expressed by the dismissed men is that they have to stand down two weeks before they are eligible for sustenanee. Efforts have been made to induce the Government to waive this reguiation, x but this would involve similar action throughout New Zealand, the Hon. F. Jones pointed out.