FIVE DAY WEEK

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 121, 14 January 1932, Page 5

FIVE DAY WEEK

unemployed meet * DEPUTATION TO MAYOR TO, PROTEST AGAINST" T NEW SYSTEM ' ORDERLY DISCUSSION".. ^ About thirty of the Rotorua unemployed gathered near the tool shed in the Government Gardens at 7.30 last dvening to Japld an informal indignation meeting to protest against tlie present system of unemployment relief and also against the new scheme under which the meii are required »to work five days for the small amount Of money received. The men sat and stood around iri.'a circle while the leader addrdssed them, saying that they should form themselves into some sort of representative organisation to protest agaihst the presen system. There was no use refusing to work, he said, for that. Was the very thing that those more fortunate than themselves and who liad "jobs," wanted them to do, ahd they would only injure themselves.. He also said that it was no use hanging around the streets and grumbling. Individual protests were useless and the only thing to do was to appoint a deputation to represent thefn all which could wait on his Worship the Mayor, or the Unemployment Committee, to find out definitely what all these schemes were and demand that they be properly controllecL L As for the five day's a week scheme, the speaker said^that he strongly dfcjected to it as it meant that single men getting 18/- per week would 'be working for 3/7 a day which he felt sure was not what was intended by the Unemployment Board. He said that they might not do any good by waitiug on Mr. Jackson, but that it was better to do something and the only sensible thing to do was to set about it in the proper way. ,s The speaker then criticised the present method of payment and the allocation of work. On the five-day scheme men not working on unemployed relief had a better chance of obtaining permanent work than those registered, for they had a chance to seelc employment and employers were more likely to take on men that were on the spot than to look for men given temporary jobs out of town. The speaker then called for nominations to fotm a deputation to wait on the Mayor to-day and four men complied. He .then called another meeting at the same place at 7.30 qn Friday evening to hear the result of the deputation and to discuss any further business. The meeting was quiet and orderly ihroughout. ■