RELIEF WORK WAGES.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5105, 25 March 1927, Page 1

RELIEF WORK WAGES.

LABOUR LEADER’S CRITICISM-

RATE CONSIDERED INSUFFICIENT

Speaking at the monthly meeting of the Westport branch <>f the Labour Party, Mr H. E. Holland,, Leader of the Opposition, said he unhesitatingly condemned the Government’s proposals to cut down the wage standards on relief works for unemployed. They had probably not had for many years an unemployed problem of such magnitude in the summer and autumn months as confronted them this year, indicating a far more serious condition of things during the winter months. In the 1925 electiCin fight Mr Coates was, being proclaimed as the “ man who gets things done." Now they find him apologetically saying that “ interests of the country and the dictates of humanity render it necessary that at the present moment the utmost should be done that can be done.” By way of preamble to this the Prime Minister had protested that the Government e°.uld not reasonably be expected to shoulder the whole responsibility of finding employment for those put of work. _ His (Mr Holland’s) reply was that the interests ■(' the country were not served and the dictates of humanity were not regarded when men were required to undertake heavy and laborious work at sweated rates of wages pm which they could licit maintain their wives and families inordinary decency and comfort. Furthermore, Mr Coates could not be permitted to overlock the fact that the situation as they had it to-day represented the Government’s policy working out its inevitable results, in the direction of economic chaos and consequent unemployment. They had made no attempt to understand the changing economic conditions abroad, or make provision for their failure to deal effectively with importations of coal, timber, etc. No Government could escape responsibility in the matter of ensuring that .the citizens o’f the country were fully employed, for every unemployed man represented an emphatic loss to the community. There were two main principles, which should be observed in finding work for unemployed. In the first place the wages paid should be standard rates obtaining for the class of work to be done. It costs just as much to keep the family of a man employed on relief work as. it costs to keep any other family of similar size. Indeed, in the majority of cases, it costs more, for the unemployed worker would probably have to g° far from home to a relief job, and would therefore have two homes to keep. Since relief pay was to be 12s a day, which would not amount t<’ more than £3 a week, allowing for wet days, a married man would be lucky if he were able to send home 30s a week. Even if work were close to his home no ordinary family could be maintained on 12s a day. PUBLIC WORKS.

In the. second place, works to be put in hand should be the most urgently needed works and railways, some of which had been hung up many years, which would be of great economic value, inasmuch as they aided be,th production and distribution by providing easy access to and from markets. If the works undertaken were necessary there could be no excuse for not .paying standard wages. Besides, how would the Government justify its disregard of its own agreements with various unions, if unemployed workers who might or might not be members of the New Zealand Workers’ Union, for instance, were being sent an to railway works, would the agreement rates apply, or would the men be required to take the non-union rate of 9s and 12s a day ? He predicted that many married men would find themselves quite unable to accept work at 12s ii day, because of the impossibility of maintaining their families. There could he no excuse on the ground of lack of money for cutting the wage date, and he anticipated that plenty of trouble would accrue from this determination.