Our Employment Bureau.
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Revised Conditions—No Application from Men Suitable for Enlistment will, in Future, be Considered, nor from Persons at Present in Employment—We Confine our Assistance to Drivers, Mechanics, and Others in the Commercial-. vehicle Branch of the Industry.
Our promptly-conceived endeavours to mitigate the dislocation which we correctly judged might threaten this industry during the first astonisE;og week of the present crisis has, in its present form. we consider, served its purpose. We have been enabled to supply a large number of men to employers of skilled labour, and to owners of motor vehicles which were,left without drivers. In the majority of instances we ato happy to feel that we have been enabled both to choose suitable men in such eases and to assist employers by their choice.
Unsuitable Applicants.
As was .inevitable, an offer such as that we have been mak,ng also brought down upon us a very large number oi" claims for assistance from men who, on the face of their qualifications, would not prove in any way suitable for commercial-vehicle work. Our own experience in respect of the selection of drivers and mechanics is an unusually extensive one, and we were enabled in the majority of cases quickly to earmark those applications which were obviously characterized by untruthfulness of statement, or by particulars of unsuitable experience—the former were regrettably frequent. In cases where applicants had, either by carelessness or by deliberation, misread the announcement of our desire to assist and the limitations we imposed upon qualifications of applicants, we had no alternative but to destroy their application forms without any further thought. Time would not permit censure or explanation.
Certain Notifications by Post.
In a further batch of cases, although the applicants had made their best endeavours to give the particulars which were requested, but had written on the off chance that we might be able to give them an opportunity to undertake work with which they were not familiar at all, we notified them by post of their unsuitability in view of the number of better-trained men who were available.
It was surprising to find the number of men who interpreted our invitation to register as one of the many current attempts to assist the Government by securing recruits for one or other branches of His Majesty's forces. Thc3a we promptly turned on to the nearest available recruiting office.
Still a Scarcity of Steam Drivers.
• To summarize the results to date, we have still to record the application by employers for a considerable number of steam-wagon and tractor drivers of experience, as well as the absence of any considerable response from men of that class who are looking for jobs. • There is apparently little reserve of this kind of labour. The total applications to date from men and from employers number approximately 800, and we have dealt in one way and another as described above with all of them which have come to hand so far.
Our Modified Regulations.
During the continuation of the present state of industrial stress, we shall retain the organization of this Employment Bureau, but we shall modify its.
operations considerably on the following lines : • (a) We shall from to-day consider no .application from men who, although being out of work, are available physically, and by reason of their age, for military service, and who are not also either married or in a position to give proof of having dependents substantially upon their earnings. This rule will be rigidly enforced, and no notice will be taken of applications which do not conform to it.
(b) We shall continue to disregard applications from men who are still in employment at the time of writing. Forms received from such men will be destroyed as they reach us.
(c) We shall in future also disregard applicationsfrom men who have not been legitimately employed in commercial-vehicle work of some kind and another. Men who have been solely occupied in private service must register their requirements elsewhere: we cannot deal with them.
(d) We shall enlarge the scope of our register ta include not only drivers of both petrol and steam-propelled vehicles, but also mechanics and others in more responsible positions who have until recently been definitely engaged in the commercial. vehicle industry.
We cannot correspond in respect of any such cases ; applicants must confine themselves to a plain recital of their experience, -with dates, together with the names of people to whom references can be made.
We Ask Employers' Co-operation.
Finally, in view of this remodelled scheme to act as an employment exchange for the whole industry, and because we shall continue rigorously to excludeall applications for employment from men who are not already engaged in the commercial-vehicle industry, we ask for the co-operation of all employers, from whom we shall with pleasure receive requests for assistance, to find them men of any special ability. Applications for assistance from men in other branches of the motor industry must necessarily b3 referred elsewhere. Our first care must be for thos3 with whom our especial interests have lain.
A New Form of Application.
The new form of application may be obtained on personal application at this office, or upon receipt of a stamped addressed envelope.