A BAD EMPLOYEE

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 52, Issue 3244, 26 March 1943, Page 5

A BAD EMPLOYEE

PROTECTION FOR FARMERS GRADING SUGGESTED STANDARD FOR SHAREMILKERS At the monthly meeting of the Morrinsville branch of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union, held recently, Mr I. A. Squires asked whether some control could not be exercised over the employment of sharemilkers and farm labourers so that when a farmer had a bad employee he should not give him a reference to get rid of him and pass him on to another farmer to ruin his farm and: cattle also.

The chairman: You mean, to brand a man ?

Mr Squires: No, but farmers should be protected against having poor men passed on to them. Mr Squires instanced the case of a sharemilker who had practically ruined a farm and had then turned round ana asked the farmer for a reference While there was a clause in sharemilking agreements providing for the dismissal of a sharemilker who failed to do his work properly the difficulty was to prove it.

■ Supporting Mr Squire’s contention. Mr Seifert said that in most other jobs a certain standard of efficiency was demanded, and he thought there should be some scheme for grading sharemilkers and farm labour. Mr A. Topham said that a man who gave an employee a reference to get rid of him should be liable to prosecution. The. question will be discussed at the next meeting of the branch.