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Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2234, 3 February 1921, Page 3

(To llie Pditor.)

Sir. —On reading your issue of Tuesday last I saw the vexed question of the bonus was again raised in the Council, and f also noticed what I consider the unfair action of the Council in the matter. Now, Sir, I would like to review the Council’s treatment of their staff. Some twelve months ago the Council granted the Town Clerk a rise in wages equal to an assistant's pay, providing he paid for his own assistant, if he required one. Recently the same Council granted the Town Clerk a- rise of £SO per year under the same conditions. An assistant is now employed, presumably on Council work. Now take the road staff, two men, leaving out the question of dependants, with hours of work 48 per week, wages Is 10d per hour plus the bonus added, and granted because they are under an award, wet days no work but still paid, and neither of them members of the Labourers’ l T nion, which Union was responsible for their increased wages. Now we have the gas works stoker, who work-, I believe, seven days a week, eight hours per day. 56 hours per week, about Is Dd‘per hour. He has a large family, and is refused the bonus, although he belongs to a Union. The road stall' do not, and this seems to meet with the Council's favour. Compare the hours. In one case the shovel singing its song at live in the morning at the gas works, winter and summer, all weathers, hut the shovel does not sing on the streets till about eight o’clock, or three hours later. Then ' compare the 28 hour week at the office. To my mind the Council should adjust its pay-sheet on a fair basis, and put its staff on a better footing. As far as the gas works is concerned, it’s the least paid job and the most strenuous. In a paper I have I find in Waihi a stoker receives £5 15s fid per week, in Pe tone £5 12s 04, XV ellington the same, Wanganui, Masterton, and any other works, all pay more. The men work a day less, and in some cases only six hours a shift. And as regards the manager, I have yet to find the works that does not find its manager a free residence. The same cannot he said in Foxton. If it’s an offence to work at your trade on Sundays, why work the stoker seven days at his trade? To err is human, but it’s inhuman to labour seven days a week. And may I ask, further, the Council’s intention in having the Inspector of Nuisances duties adjusted by the Gas Committee. I may he a candidate at the next Council elections, and for that reason I do not care to disclose my identity.—Yours, CANDIDATE,