TRADE AND LABOUR NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 169, 17 July 1919, Page 10

TRADE AND LABOUR NOTES.

(By IXDCSTMAL TRAMP.) TJXIOX MEETINGS FOR THE WEEK. 'This Evening. July 17-Tramway Officers Moulders, Bootmakers' Special, Traniwav Employees. Monday, July 21—Cutter.- and Pressers. Tuesday, July 22—Engineers. Wednesday, July 2o—Bootmakers. Furniture Trades. LOCAL ACTIVITIES. As a result of the decision of the I nited Federation of Labour conference; at Wellington, last week, the national executive is wholly located at Auckland for the ensuing year. It may be explained that the majority of the officers were located here lust year, but the secretary-treasurer was* Mr Hiram Hunter, at Christchurch. This involved much loss of time in correspondence between the two centres, and, at times, not a little confusion, owing to matters being deal with at both ends "simultane-' ously. The officers this year are:— President, Mr T. Bloodworth; vice-presi-dent, Mr H. Horning, aud secretarytreasurer, Mr B. The result of the officials being at the "one centre will be a considerable simplification in the work. The District Council will hold its first meeting next week, when the full executive will be appointed from amongst the local unions affiliated to tho federation. * The Labour Day Celebration Committee is now in full swing, and preparations for the fitting observance of Labour Day in Auckland on the fourth Monday in October, which this year falls on the 27th, are well under way. The function will take the form of a monster procession to the Cricket Ground, where a full programme of sports will be carried out, including the aunual baby show. The officers are: President, Mr J. Cowsill: treasurer. Mr J. Fawcus, and secretary, Mr B. Martin. The various subcommittees have also been appointed, and these are arranging the details to report to the general committee. The Westfield Chemical Manure Workers' Union, whose award expired at the - end of May, filed an application for a new award on July 7. So far, the Conciliation Commissioner has not been able to fix a date for the hearing of the dispute in Council, but this will be done next week. Several decisions of the Arbitration Court have been filed during the past week. One is that of the Auckland Farriers and General Blacksmiths, in which a war bonus of 2Jd per hour has been granted in addition to the present rate of 1/6J per hour for farriers and gtneral smiths, and l/4i per hour for fioormen. The increase came into operation on July 14. In the application of the Auckland Gumworkers for an increase of wages owing to the cost of living, a war bonus of 21d. per hour- has been declared, to come into operation on Monday next, July 21' SHORTER HOURS. The tendency of the times is towards shorter hours. In Xew Zealand, there have been pronouncements in favour of a forty-hour week, made up of five days "of eight'hours each. At the mention of ' such a radical departure from ..the .old orthodox dogma of the "four eights," viz., "Eight hours' work, eight hours' play, eight hours' sleep, and eight bob a day," many stsady going conservatives have gasped with alarm, explaiming, "What is the world coming to?" But New Zealand, which used proudly to boast of being in the van of progress, is not extra prominent in tisis race for shorter hours. Lord Levesfaulme, one of the most radical of employers in Britain, has often in speec&es and in writing, declared that working hours can be reduced and output kept up, and even increased by keeping the machinery going 12, IS, or 24 hours, and the employees working six-hour shifts, or shifts that aggregate 30 hours per week, and still give the Saturday half-holiday. At the last annual meeting of the Port Sunlight Soap Company, in moving the adoption of the report and balance-sheet, Lord Leverhulme outlined his scheme for the company to adopt. Two shifts will be worked, six hours in each shift. The morning shift will start at 7 a.m., working till 1.15 p.m., including a break of 15 minutes from 5.45 for some light refreshment, the said refreshment to be supplied at the company's expense. At 1.15 the work of the morning shift men for that day will be over, and they are free till 7 ajn. the next; day. This is from Monday till Saturday inclusive, totalling six days of six hours each. He said: "When we come to consider the afternoon shift, there is a strong feeling : and desire to retain the Saturday after- ! noon half-holiday, notwithstanding that every alternate week there will be a •whole week of half-holidays; and to meet this wish the afternoon shift will only work five afternoons, the average rjeing 7 hours and 12 minutes each after- ' noon instead of six afternoons oi six lyurs. Therefore the shift will commence at 1.15 pan. (there "will be a break of half an hour for refreshment from 4.45 till 5.15 pjn.) and will stop at 9 p.m.: but on Friday night work will stop at a quarter of an hour earlier, at 5.45. so that the weekly aggregate is 36 hours." After commenting further on this new arrangement, he goes on to say: "Of course, the shifts wiU be changed weekly. Now, with regard to light meals. We purpose to providing these at the firm's expense free to the workers. We feel that it will save enormously in timekeeping and actual running, and will simplify the catering. The light refreshments ■will be tea. coffee, cocoa, bread and butter and sandwiches, entirely free at counters adjacent to where the men are working. Neither men nor boys nor girls will require to walk further than is represented by getting out of a railway train and going to the refreshment room. 1 have tested what you can take at a refreshment room in a quarter of "an hour, and I find, if I tried, I could eat more than was good for mc. (Laughter.) So that is ample time for refreshments. The rate of wages will be exactly the same for the 33-hour week as for a 48-hour week. This is obviously essential, but it is equally certain that the staff can accomplish the work without adding any expense to the company by so organising the carrying on of the work, that no increase of expenditure will fall on the company." In commenting on the proposals only briefly outlined above, my old friend "Veteran," in Lis Labour column in the Dunedin "Star" writes:—"Of course there are no works in New Zealand that employ anything like the number of hands that are employed at Port Sunlight, but there are places where Lord Leverhulme's scheme might be adopted in a modified form. The woollen mills, for instance, might work two shifts of six hours each, and if that was tried there might not be the same difficulty in getting hands as is the case at present. Instead of having to call employees back from two to four nights n week, the factories could work 72 hours per week, instead of -IS ordinary hours and S hours' overtime, which is the limit at present, _