N.Z. BOXMAKERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 149, 25 June 1936, Page 16

N.Z. BOXMAKERS.

44-HOUR WEEK WANTED.

"PECULIAR DIFFICULTIES."

(By Telegraph.-j-Press Association.)

WELLINGTON, Wednesday,

Contending that peculiar difficulties attended the making of butter boxes and fruit cases and cheese crates and that the application of the 40-hour week to the industry would make its successful operation impossible because of the cheaper, price of imported boxes, the New Zealand Box makers' ,Association asked the Court of Arbitration to-day to grant an extension of the working hours to 44. More than ;>0 firms in many parts f the country supported the application. The association made application to the Court to lix the weekly limits of hours in the boxmaking industry at not fewer than 44 a. week; to fix the hours that may be worked daily (excluding meal times) at not more than B}, and to iix 41 hours as the limit that may be worked continuously without an interval for a meal. It was submitted that the seasonal variability of production in the dairying, fruit and freezing industries, with which boxmaking was closely associated, made it necessary to have the widest possible elasticity and flexibility in hours of work. The application was opposed by the workers. The Court reserved its decision.