WORKER’S COMPLAINT

Hokitika Guardian, 31 October 1929, Page 2

WORKER’S COMPLAINT

CLASSIFICATION - SUGGESTED, " .. . .m* . ,> AUCKLAND, October 24. A complaint / that an undesirable class of men are sent to some, of the Public Works relief cam.ps was made cnis morning by an Auckland mid-dle-aged'.man who, having the misfortune to. be out of his regular employment’, ..has been engaged'of late at one of;the relief camps in the Hauraki Plains "district He said that many of the men in the particular camp were, of a very, good type, hut ;their lot was made particularly hard by others, who were very rough in their- habits. . He added that, his experience of the particular camp was that the Puhilc Works officials in charge of the job were good men, and that while .the work was in progress there was nothing to complain of. The.,-food supplied was very satisfactory. .

The trouble, he said, was in connection with camp life itself. There, was a class of. men who was 'a continual nuisance through cadging habits. Very bad language was often used, and where an hotel was in reach some men would gravitate there any chance they had ahd often return late at night to be a- nuisance to the men who spent their evenings in camp.

The Aucklander who made the complaint agreed that the position, was one of considerable difficulty, blit he contended that the Public Works Department should he able to devise n scheme by which decent men could hand themselves together to carry out any particular job instead of the present method by which men were selected indiscriminately and sent to relief works camps.

‘I think a classification of the men according to; their- morals is impossible” said an official of the Public Works Department, “and it seems unnecessary. If a man has a lot of had habits the rest of the men in a camp will probably take steps to get rid of him, and such a type does not often last long. The average undesirable does not like work and does not stay long.”

Even /in- a relief camp it should he remembered that a certain standard of efficiency was insisted upon, continued the official. Every opportunity was given to the men to enable them to pick their own companions and they were not forced to associate with men of an undesirable type. The tendency was for ■ the men to sort themselves. The attitude of the department was to insist upon the men doing their work properly and it was impossible to lay down hard, and fast,standards how the men should conduct themselves in their leisure time.