WELLINGTON NEWS

Hokitika Guardian, 27 January 1930, Page 3

WELLINGTON NEWS

FAMILY ENDOWMENT.

(Special Correspondent.)

WELLINGTON, Jan. 25

*So far this humanitarian scheme has nob secured any hold in Australia. Legislation was introduced in the New South Wales Parliament, but the Bill was shelved. It is interesting to note, that a system of family allowances has been working smoothly in France for years. It was originated by employers, has been financed solely and /voluntarily by employers, and is absolutely free of Government control. It is rapidly growing in popularity and is revolutionising certain aspects of French working-class life. “Allocations Families” as these allocations are called in France, weiiq the invention of a group of business men in the Grenoble district during the years immediately before the war. Seeking to establish community of interest between capital and workers, they decided to fill vacancies in their employment with* married men rather than with single ones, and to pay these married men extra allowances based on the number of children they possessed. The allowance it was agreed should he in addition to the ordinary standard trade union wages and should be paid entirely by the employers, without counter liability of any kind on the part of the recipients. The “Economist” states that this system worked well for a year or two, and then the Grenoble employers made a curious discovery. They found that, although the pledge that they had given to each other was a purely voluntary’ one, human nature was proving toe strong for them, and that they were often yielding to the temptation to take on single men, or men with onD one child in preference to workers: with large familities. They decided that henceforward, although the extra ollowancies should be continued to be paid out by the individual employer, the total as distributed by the whole of the members of the association should be centralised in a specially-created office called a Caisse de Compensation, and the burden borne pro rata b.v the various firms on the basis of the total amount of wages paid by each firm. > Firms who had paid more than* their proper quota of allowances would thus at the periodical making'hip of accounts r'v-eive back the surplus, while those who had paid less than their quota were required to make up the difference.

The system of “allocations faniiliales” has, since the Armistice, spread over the whole of France to the unalloyed benefit of both employers and employed. Reports presented at the ninth annua,! Congress Nationale des Allocations Familiales, v which was'recently held at Tours, showed that at the end of 1928 over 25,0-90 firms were applying thrf 'or 5000 more than in 1927. These figures were grouped into 288 associations. The number of wage earners in respect of whom extra allowances were paid was 1,740,000, against, 1,520,000 in 1927, representing with their wives and (jhildrien, over 4,171 jOOO , against 3,862,000 in 1927. The amount paid in allocations familiales -in 1928 was 292.000,000 francs, say £2,330,000, or over £250,000 more than in the previous year. Taking the whole country, the average scale of allowance is 4s 6d a month for the first child, rising to 116 franca (18s 8d) for three,- and to 328 francs (£2 12s 10d) if there are six. The principle usually prevailing is that of “tinlarger the family, the more per child:” The rates vary considerably according to trade, area and the cost of living. The allowances are paid direct to the mother, and in most ol the associations special maternity allowances and “cradle premiums’’ are paid, in respect of every new child. Sick pay is given by many associations, while others provide nurses and doctors free and various other benefits. The practical value of this high system of social betterment is seen not only in the vastly better relations that now exist between French capital and labour, but also in many other directions. The birth rate in families enjoying these extra allowances is 50 per cent higher than the general rate throughout France, and. infantile mortality is 20 to 25 per cent less. ‘ln addition an increasingly large number of mothers of families are able to abstain from factory work, and devote themselves solely to their homes—something approaching a social revolution in France. While working on common principles, each association is free to fix its ov n scale of allowances and programme of other benefits. Allocations Familiales, the French employers say, have no relation to any form of work done, but solely concern moral and social order, with the whole idea- of a purely humanitarian, conception. The only danger the movement has constantly before it is that outside agitation may wreck the whole effort By securing the passage of a bill making the general application of the principle compulsory, or incorporation tile system in the* new national insurance scheme which is just about to come into operation.