GOVERNMENT STEPS IN

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 828, 23 November 1929, Page 11

GOVERNMENT STEPS IN

DISMISSAL OF P. AND T. “CASUALS” WORK TO BE FOUND WELLINGTON. Today. The Government committee on employment has taken in hand the i i dismissal of casual employees of the j j Post and Telegraph Department at j Auckland and Wellington. They will , | either be reinstated in similar work J | or employment will be provided for! j them elsewhere. DISCHARGED AFTER FIVE YEARS ' “NOT A DRAIN-DIGGER” *T have been with the Post and Teloj graph Department for live years and j three months, but 1 got my ‘ticket’ last j night,” said a man who called at The i Sun Ollice this morning, j Ho was protesting about the statement by the secretary of tho department, Mr. G. McNamara, in Wellington, that most of the men who had been dismissed from tlio I*. and T. service had been digging drains. Tho caller stated that for four years ho was engaged in doing line work and that for the past year or more he had ; been driving a four-ton motor-lorry j for <£3 19s 9d a week, lie said he had j ; never dug a drain in his life. “I am a married man with two child- ! ren,” lie continued. “When a man 1 has been engaged on P. and T. work I for live years he gets wrapped up in ! his job and feels that lie is permanent. ; AVo know that when we are taken on : it is only temporary, but that feeling goes after such long service.” An official of the Post and Tele- , graph Department explained as he did in yesterday’s Sun that the men cannot ■ bo kept on when there are no more j funds available. The department is a; commercial concern, working for a pro- j fit, and must show a balance sheet each j year. It does not receive any funds j for tho relief of unemployed. Tho position, ho said, was no dif- i ferent from that of any other year— j as soon as the work was finished and j no more funds were available the men ■ were put off. They will be given first j preference as soon as any men are re- ; quired when more money is available. | ■- ~