PAY ON RELIEF WORKS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 814, 7 November 1929, Page 6

PAY ON RELIEF WORKS

GOVERNMENT’S POLICY DEFENDED ANSWER TO CRITICISM Press Association PARLIAMENT BLDGS., Tues. The Government’s policy in regard to wages and conditions on unemployment relief works was defended in the House of Representatives today by the Hon. E. A. Ransom, Minister, of Public Works. Mr. P. Fraser (Wellington Central) asked the Minister whether he had seen the statement published in a Wellington newspaper in which M.r. A. Cook, general secretary of the New Zealand "Workers’ Union, strongly criticised the Government’s system of employing men on relief works. Mr. Ransom said that his experience did not bear out the impressions that were conveyed by Mr. Cook’s remarks. He would always be prepared to investigate any complaints that were made to him, and he would undertake to ha.ve the conditions rectified in cases where complaints were justified. He claimed that the wages paid on relief works were now higher on the average, and an endeavour had been made to see that the Prime Minister’s promise regarding rates of pay was carried out. * The Minister pointed out that under the co-operative contract system, it was quite impossible to arrive at a uniform rate of pay, nor was such a state of affairs desirable. The Government’s object was to ensure that co--operative rates of pay would enable the average man, working industriously, to earn standard rates.