CHRISTMAS BONUS ARRANGED

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 72, 17 December 1937, Page 9

CHRISTMAS BONUS ARRANGED

-Press Association.!

£2 for Married, £1 for Single Unemployed Men HODDAY PAYMENTS

(By Telegraph-

CHBISTCHURCH, Last Night. A Christmas bonus of £2 for married men and £1 for single men will be paid to all eligible relief workcrs this year, the Minister for Labour (Hon. H. T. Armstrong) said this evening when announcing the arrangements made for Christmas payments and for the Christmas and New Year holidays. Scheme No. 5 works will close down on Wednesday, December 22 and will re-open on Monday, January 10, and certain workers will be granted two weeks' paid holiday. In addition to relief workers, the men who have been transferred from the register of the unemployed to Government works within two months before Christmas will be eligible for the, bonus and holiday benefits. Mr. Armstrong said that the bonus would be payable to all those men who actually received relief or were engaged under one of the undermentioned schemes in the week ended December 4, 1937: (a) Scheme No. 5, workers employed on a rationed basis, i.e. less than 40 hours a weekj (b) men receiving sustenance without work; (c) gold prospectors, includiug men employed on developmental work other than those employed full time (40 hours a week or more) at standard rates of pay; (d) clerical workers employed in local body offices, relief depots, etc., whose total remuneration as such is not more than £2 10s a week in the case of married men and 37s 6d a^week in the case of single men; (e) scheme 4 workers on their own farms (excludiag orchardists receiving frost damage relief) ; (f ) men receiving sustenance allowance nnder the small farm plan; (g) men employed on special full-time works arranged fchrough local bodies, etc. 6 ' All men who actually receive relief assistance under one of the abovementioned schemes in the week ended December 4, 1937, are entitled to receive the bonus," continued the Minister, explaining the conditions of eligibility. "The bonus is still payable although the worker did not continue to Teceive relief after the week ended December 4. Any person who registered and became eligible for relief for the first time after the week ended December 4 is not eligible to receive the bonus. "Any person who registers and becomes eligible for relief in any of the weeks ended December 11, 15 and 25 is eligible to receive the bonus if he actually had been receiving relief under one of the above-mentioned schemes at any time within the period of three months between September 5 and December 4, 1937. "In addition to the Christmas bonus the Government has decided tlnrt all workers employed on the undermentioned schemes are to be granted two weeks' paid heiiday fgr the weeks ending January 1 and 8, 1938," said Mr. Armstrong. "These workers are: (A) Scheme 5 workcrs employed on a rationed basis, i.e., less than 40 hours a week; (b) gold prospectors employed under scheme 15, including those ob developmental work, except where they are employed for full time at standard rates of pay; (c) workers employed in clerical and other eapacities in local body offices, relief depots, etc. "All scheme 5 works will be closed down on Wednesday, December 22, and will re-open on Monday, January 10. Any men who would normally be required to report for scheme 5 work on Thursday or Friday, December 23 and 24, will be paid in advance for these days as if they had worked. Payment for the holiday weeks will be made to scheme 5 workers, gold prospectors, etc. before Christmas."