41

H.—lla

336. 1940-41 season presented greater problems, as an increasing number of men were required for military service and the higher level of employment generally meant a reduction in the number of casual workers available. The Placement Service transferred men from other employment and enrolled students and schoolboys in large numbers, thereby fairly adequately meeting the position. In the following years (1941-42 and 1942-43) the problem was much more difficult owing to the large-scale mobilization which was in progress, but it was tackled in a similar manner, with the addition of large numbers of experienced men released from the Army for short periods. 337. The absorption of practically all the reserves of casual labour made the problem of meeting seasonal labour requirements in the last three seasons much more difficult and necessitated the transfer of labour from other industries. 338. Students, teachers, and schoolboys were mobilized to an increasing degree, while as many voluntary workers as possible were enrolled for such projects as vegetable-growing, hop-picking, &c. Much of the seasonal farm work is relatively unskilled; but the needs of dairy factories and freezingworks could not be met in this manner. The Army established special camps in various districts to assist harvesting, and this scheme was very successful. Large numbers were provided for freezingworks by releasing men from the Armed Forces and by the direction of workers from other less essential industries. 339. It is fortunate that the freezing-works are distributed fairly widely over New Zealand and not confined to any single locality, as this enables the whole country to be drawn upon for labour supplies. The works in the South also begin somewhat later than those in the North. Besides these older established industries, the staffing of vegetable-dehydration and linen-flax factories was also a problem ; but the requirements of some of these have been materially reduced in recent months. (ii) 1944-45 340. The last season presented the same difficulties as in previous years and required vigorous action by the Man-power Officers throughout the country. Freezing-works, wool-stores, and dairy factories all require a fairly robust type of worker ; and in the past season large-scale diversion of men from less essential industry was needed, as well as students, teachers, and ex-Army personnel. 341. Females were required principally for food-canning, orchard work, and vegetable-growing, this rquiring a diversion of labour in some districts; but in others it was met without any great difficulty. 342. Tables 41, 42, and 43 give paticulars of juveniles, University students, and school-teachers placed in or directed to holiday or seasonal work during the 1944-45 season. SECTION XII.—REHABILITATION OF WORKERS UPROOTED BY DIRECTION 343. At the 31st March, 1945, there were some 63,000 males and 16,000 females employed in industry under man-power direction. The conclusion that immediately follows from this is that the rehabilitation of many of these workers will present a problem akin to that of the rehabilitation of ex-servicemen, although it can be expected that this problem will be neither so complex nor so difficult. 344. An important qualification which must be made at the outset is that the total number of current directions magnifies the extent of the problem of rehabilitating directed workers. The majority of these workers have the right of reinstatement in their pre-direction positions under the Occupational Re-establishment Regulations, and the problem of the rehabilitation of uprooted workers will be confined to several thousands of workers who have been directed away from one vocation to another either in the same district or in another district and who do not desire to return to, or who will meet difficulty in returning to, the employment which they formerly pursued. 345. The rehabilitation of uprooted workers is closely related to the capacity of the previous employer to re-engage the worker. Just as the re-engagement of ex-servicemen by the pre-service employer will not alwayß be possible, so, too, the re-engagement of directed workers will some times present a problem. If to this is added the general tendency on the part of employers to give preference to ex-servicemen, and the further possibility of difficulty in realizing a state of full employment, the Department will be faced for some time with a small but persistent problem of retraining and placement. It is expected in this connection that workers ujjrooted by the procedure of this Department will in some way be enabled to partake of the same or similar training facilities as those made available to ex-servicemen. SECTION XIII.—ABSENTEEISM FROM INDUSTRY (i) Incidence and Extent of Absenteeism 346. The Department's view (which is supported by various investigations and reports from overseas) has been that the solution of the problem of industrial absenteeism is mainly a matter of sympathetic adjustment between management and staff. It is a well-known fact that there can be identical factories in the same neighbourhood with a widely different incidence of absenteeism. Moreover, a reduction in absenteeism following readjustment of the relationship between management and staff has frequently been noted in reports on investigations into this matter. While the solution of the problem must be regarded, therefore, as. lying largely in the hands of individual managements, absence from essential work without good reason during the period of war emergency has nevertheless had to be viewed seriously. Consequently, provisions were incorporated in the Industrial Man-power Regulations to discipline wilful absentees from industry, and the nature of the control machinery devised for this purpose is discussed in Subsection (iv) of Section 111 of this Part of the report.