EXEMPTIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 143, 18 June 1936, Page 16

EXEMPTIONS.

FORTY-HOUR WEEK.

APPLICATIONS TO BE HEARD.

KEEN INTEREST TAKEN.

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.)

WELLINGTON, Wednesday.

Industry is taking a great deal of interest in the special sitting of the Court of Arbitration to be held in 'Wellington on Monday, to consider applications for exemption from the 40hour week in factories, or for temporary extension of the hours to 44, when the legislation comes into force on September 1. A very large number of applications is being prepared throughout' New Zealand by employers' organisations, which are busy grouping them for presentation to the Court. The secretary of the New Zealand Employers' Federation, Mr. T. O. "Bishop, stated to-day that the applications would fall into three groups, as follows: —

Those industries in which proceedings in connection with new awards have already been taken, in which cases the employers will apply to the Court for interim orders maintaining the 44-hour week until such time as new awards are made, either by negotiation or by the Court itself. Those industries in which the emplqyers concerned desire a little longer time to adapt their processes to a shorter working week, but who are prepared to adopt a 40-hour week in, say, six months. In these eases the applications will be for short-term orders, probably until the end of the present year. Those industries in which, because of the impossibility of performing the work ir: 40 hours, a permanent extension of hours will be asked for. In this group come such industries as gasworks, cement works and others in which continuous processes are carried on for 24 hours in every day of the year.

'Manufacturers' View. An outline of the attitude which manufacturers consider the Court of Arbitration is likely to adopt toward applications for exemption from the 40hcur week was given by the secretary of the New Zealand Manfacturers' Federation, Mr. A. E. Mandei', to-day. He said he and Mr. A. W. Nisbet, secretary of the Wellington Manufacturers' Association, had given considerable attention to the Government'sNindustrial legislation, and had again interviewed the Minister of Labour, the Hon. H. T. Armstrong. As a result they had formed a very strong impression that the Government' did not intend that the Court should grant exemptions from the application of the 40-hour week except in very exceptional cases. The mere fact that costs would be increased would almost certainly not be considered, of itself, sufficient ground for exemption. The three strongest grounds on which applications for exemption could be based were, in their opinion, as follows, : _A technical impossibility of carrying out a process in 40 hours; a severe shortage of skilled labour in industry, which might be accepted as a ground for temporary exemption; and a booking of orders for the coming season at old prices, in which Cases firms might ask the Court for exemption until such time as: their contracts were completed. .