OUT OF WORK

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 15 May 1919, Page 3

OUT OF WORK

It is estimated that at the present time there are upwards of 200 returned soldiers in Auckland who are on the unemployed list. Many, it is regrettable to find, are incapacitated for any work, save of the lightest kind, owing to their crippled condition, others, sad to Bay, will never be able to work again, and yet others, who are, happily, well and strong, and ready to resume work in their old billets, find themselves out in the cold because the girls who filled their places when they went to the war now refuse to make way for them. A large number of employers pledged themselves when their male employees were called to the colours to keep their billets open foi.' them, and have kept their promise. But not all of them. In some cases the young women concerned have proved such efficient substitutes for men that their employers are reluctant to dispense with their services— especially as they are willing to work for considerably less money than the men are prepared to accept. As for the girls in question, having tasted the sweets of office life they do not, presumably, care about going back to their former pursuits, even although they know they ought to do so because they are depriving men who have been fighting for them of the work they formerly did, and would gladly do again.