UPKEEP OF EMPLOYEES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 August 1939, Page 3

UPKEEP OF EMPLOYEES

IN MEAT FREEZING INDUSTRY. LEGISLATION POSSIBLE. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH. August 22. The possibility of action being taken by the Government to compel freezing companies to contribute toward the upkeep of employees in the off-season or to pay wages ‘'sufficient to tide them! over,” was mentioned by the Minister') of Housing, Mr Armstrong, in an address to unemployed workers in Christchurch.

"We must expect to have unemployment in Christchurch in the winter because of seasonal occupations,’’/said the Minister. "Some of the newspaper editors and some politicians say that freezing workers make such money during the season that they should have enough to tide them over. That is an old, old story. That may be the position of some workers in the freezing industry, but I should imagine that the majority earn just enough to keep them going while they are at work (hear, hear) without making any provision for tiding them over a lew months.”

The Government’s policy was not to pay sustenance, because there should be useful and necessary work for everybody in the country, "and I think freezing companies should carry some of the responsibility 'hear. hear). They employ some" thousands of men and some of them pay pretty substantial dividends, and I don’t think that the State should be called upon every year to tide them over til! it suits the companies’ convenience to take the men back again."

The companies should be either looked to to lake some of the responsibility of providing work, or pay sufficient to enable men to live for the season. That question would have to be gone into very soon.