Vol. 81 No. 1
I move :—
That a sum not exceeding £11,066 4s. 3d. be granted to make good an Excess on the Grant for Forestry for the year ended 31st March, 1939.
This excess amount arises from the fact that a greater number of men were employed than was anticipated, and it is also due, in part, to an increase in the wages payable.
On a previous occasion I drew the Minister's attention to the wages paid forestry workers, and I was told that the matter would be considered. I should like now to draw the Minister's attention to the treatment of some foresters in County Wicklow. A number of men there joined the Army. They had been permanently employed on forestry work in the Laragh area for the past three years, but simply because they were called up for their month's training with the Army they were deprived of their week's holiday with pay, because that month during which they were in training was not calculated in the hours of work served with the Forestry Department.
We have Government Departments issuing appeals to private employers to assist in this matter of men joining the Army, but here is one Government Department which deprives a man of his pay for Christmas Day and St. Stephen's Day and his week's holidays, simply because he serves in the Army, while the man who is not in the Army receives his week's pay. The Minister should make some order setting out that a month's training with the Army by an employee of the Forestry service should rank as work with the Department, so that the man will be entitled to his week's holidays the same as employees who have not done any such service. I can give the Minister one particular case in which the Forestry Department have refused to pay a man, and in which the Department of Defence say: "We cannot do anything for him, but we suggest that the Government should make some order to cover such cases."
We have other cases of men in the Local Security Force who, having done their six hours' duty at night and having to cycle five miles to work in the morning, are ten minutes late for work. The ganger then says that they are not to turn in until 9 o'clock, and a quarter day's pay is stopped from them. That is not what one would expect from a Government which is appealing to men to join the Army, and if private employers treated their employees in that fashion, we would have resolutions of condemnation from all over the country. In this case, however, we have a Government Department penalising a man for giving his services and victimising him to the extent that if he is five minutes late for work, he has to forfeit a quarter of his miserable day's pay. I draw the Minister's attention to this matter so that he may put things right by sending instructions to the overseers in the Forestry Department that these men are not to lose money by reason of having joined the Army.
I would ask the Deputy to wait until I have an opportunity of looking into this matter. I have not come across any cases of this nature. The Government, of course, has to adopt a uniform policy with regard to their employees in the State forces or emergency services. We cannot have one rule for one class of employees and another for another class. It may appear that there are anomalies, but I think there is a general policy being followed which, however, I would not be able to indicate to the House at the moment. It is really the function largely of the Minister for Finance, and I can only promise the Deputy that I shall look into the matter. I am not quite sure whether anything can be done about the month's training period for those who are in the regular Army, but I am very doubtful whether anything can he done for the other classes to which the Deputy referred, but I shall look into the matter if the Deputy will be good enough to send me the names of the individuals concerned.
If the man had been called up a fortnight later, he would have been entitled to his week's pay, but simply because he was called up too early, he was deprived of it and is penalised for his national service. I do not regard it as an anomaly; I regard it as a scandal that a man should be treated like that.
Vote agreed to and reported.
