H.—lla

As a result of ail the other registrations, Man-power Officers throughout the Dominion now have in their registers details of:— 184,000 men (including 69,000 unfit men aged eighteen to forty-five inclusive); and 110,000 women — i.e., 294,000 persons in all. A schedule giving fuller details of the various registration orders is set out in the Appendix to this report. In order to cut down the expenditure of work and paper involved in these registrations, each Order has provided for a series of exempted classes, these being in every case classes of persons who are already registered or are in the forces, or engaged in some definitely essential industry, or are for some other reason considered unsuitable for inclusion in the registration. A notable exempted class comprises married women with children, who were excluded from the Order covering women aged twenty-four to thirty. Though very extensive publicity has been given to each Order as it has been issued, it has been found in practice that there is always a margin of the population which refuses to meet the obligation to register. As the scope of industrial man-power control has been extended, an};- imagined advantage to be gained from failure to register has, of course, been curtailed, and no movement into any position can now take place without the person concerned coming under the notice of a Man-power Officer. Nevertheless, cases of failure to register are looked upon severely, and there have been a number of prosecutions to date for this offence. 7. DIRECTIONS INTO ESSENTIAL WORK From their pools of registered persons Man-power Officers have during the past year selected many tens of thousands of likely subjects for direction into essential work and have called these persons in for interview. Arising mainly from these interviews, a steady stream of directions has been given to men and women workers engaged in less-important occupations, as well as to persons not at the time in employment at all, to commence work with a specified employer engaged in some industrial activity which is essential in war conditions. By the end of March, 1943 — 25,013 directions had been given to men ; and 5,766 directions had been given to women — i.e., 30,779 directions in all had been given. Of all these directions, 3,261 were later withdrawn on a fuller examination of the circumstances, practically all the remaining directions being duly complied with. Only 1,079 appeals were lodged, this being rather less than 3 J per cent, of the number of directions given. Those were divided about equally between appeals from losing employers and appeals from the persons actually directed. Of the appeals dealt with by 31st March, 23 per cent, have been withdrawn, 33 per cent, have been uphold, while 44 per cent, have been dismissed. Many of the directions, particularly in the case of constructional workers and seasonal workers, have been of temporary application only, so that it cannot be said that the labour force in essential work has been augmented by any figure deduced from the number of directions given. On the other hand, there has been a very considerable voluntary drift of workers —particularly women workers —into essential work in advance of direction, and even in advance of registration. Administrative Policy. —In directing persons to work of national importance, the following main lines of policy have been followed : — (a) Persons have generally been directed only into those industries and undertakings which have actually been declared essential —i.e., into undertakings where the nature and conditions of work have been subject to examination, and where the whole labour force is subject to control under conditions in reasonable accord with those to which the directed person is subject in terms of the direction order : (b) The inflicting of any serious loss of income as a result of transfer has been avoided : (c) Regard has been had to the fact that certain industries, while not actually declared essential, are nevertheless of such importance that staff should not be directed away from them : (d) The inflicting of any excessive hardship on a particular undertaking in comparison with other similar undertakings by way of arbitrary and wholesale removal of staff has been avoided : (e) Transfers from work demanding a high degree of skill to work demanding a lower degree of skill are avoided where possible : (/) Regard has been had to the need to retain sufficient nucleus staffs within the field of lessessential industries to enable rapid expansion during the time of demobilization after the end of the war : ((j) Workers are directed from distant centres only when all local means of filling positions in urgent essential work have been exhausted. Where workers are transferred to employment away from their homes, and where removal, travelling, and separation expenses and allowances are not otherwise provided for, these expenses and allowances are met as a charge to War Expenses Account: (h) Industrial transfers initiated by Man-power Officers are carried out in harmony with the policy of Armed Forces Appeal Boards in the selective release of men to the forces and are designed where possible to facilitate such releases.

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