Greedy Casuals Get Employment

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 468, 25 September 1928, Page 1

Greedy Casuals Get Employment

“CUT-THROAT” WAGES CONTRACTOR COMPLAINS That men in regular employment requiring them to work in shifts spend their spare time in casual work at “cut-throat” rates of pay, is a complaint made by an Auckland contractor. Speaking on the subject to-day, he said before he had actual experience of this class of labour he thought it would be advantageous to the employer who wanted casual workers, but experience has proved that this is not so. The men, working in shifts, generally managed to get in their requisite number of hours by Saturday, and were thus free to augment th’eir wages by doing casual work which would have been sufficient to keep some of the unemployed from the “bread line.” Having already earned a week’s wages thfey could afford to do the work cheaply, and it was this fact that enabled them to secure employment to the detriment of the unemployed, who were in need of the few shillings they could get. “My experience,” said the informant, “is that these greedy casuals do not do the jobs well, and they are difficult to obtain when wanted, and the difference in wages does not compensate for these disadvantages.”