HOURS OF WORK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 114, 15 May 1936, Page 8

HOURS OF WORK.

SHOPS AND OFFICES. AMENDMENTS TO BILL. LAW CLERKS AFFECTED. (By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. The changes made in the Shops and Offices Amendment Bill by the Labour Bills Committee of the House are generally in the direction of a slight casing of the restrictive conditions. The committee reported the measure this morning with an addition to clause three, which specifies hours of employment, providing that there must not be continuous work for longer than 4J hours without an interval of at least one hour for a meal. A sub-clause has been added enabling a shopkeeper, with the previous consent of an inspector, to extend the period to live hours so long as assistants are allowed a rest period of not less than 10 minutes in every working period of three hours. All the provisions relating to hours will, according to the new clause, come into operation on September 1 next. Another addition to the bill will enable persons engaged in the delivery of milk to start work before 3 a.m. if the conditions are previously approved by the Minister of Labour. The prohibition of the handling by any shop assistant of packages over 50IL weight has been deleted. All the clauses relating to ofiices remain unaltered, but there is an addition which will enable office assistants employed in solicitors' offices to work extended hours ' under special circumstances, this being subject to the limitation that the extension shall not exceed three hours in any day, nor be worked for more than six days in any month.