SHORTER WEEK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 243, 13 October 1936, Page 14

SHORTER WEEK.

SYDNEY DECISION.

ADOPTION BY COUNTY

COUNCIL

d DIVISION OF OPINION. It « 1 e (From Our Own Correspondent.) t SYDNEY, October 2. k I e Yesterday the Sydney County Couneil opened a. fresh page in the State's ,r J economic history when it resolved — d 1 though only by three votes to 2 —to r ' adopt the motion of the chairman (Mr. S. A. Lloyd, M.L.A.) for the - immediate introduction of the fortyhour week. The new system will affect ! 2700 employees, who will draw the same wages as before, so that the experiment is to be made on a. very considerable scale which will justify other centres in accepting it as a precedent or a "test case" for the future. So far as the county council is concerned, it cannot be said that members j ! were taken by surprise. For the chairI man lias frequently told public audiences | ] that he approves'of the 40-hour week i in principle, and he gave due notice of • his intention to raii»e the question in p the council some time ago. Vigorous Opposition. But in spite of this, the opposition raised was vigorous and bitter.! I Mr. Cramer and Mr. McElhone. I hold that the matter ought to be inves- j i tigated further before so decisive a step j , can be taken with safety, and that, in any case, the chairman's action was precipitate and indiscreet, and that it • would involve the council in far greater increased expenditure than his estimate of £40,000 a year. Mr. Cramer went so far as to describe the proposal as "a colossal blunder, highly improper, preposterous and fundamentally wrong," anil when the two dissentients were, beaten on division they tabled notices J of motion for rescinding the council's resolution later on. j Of course all this discussion is merely part and parcel of the wider and even . more acrimonious controversy which has raged round the 40-hour week scheme for years past in Australia. But the support given by the Federal Government to the International Labour Office vote in favour of the 40-hour week at Geneva in 1035 has to some extent compromised the Commonwealth in its favour. It is true that Sir F. Stewart was instructed to promise Australia's' support "should the majority of nations be in favour of it," but it may be questioned whether this covered unconditional support for any proposal carried by the requisite majority of delegates. , Is Australia Committed? Opponents of the scheme contend that Australia is not committed to the 40- ; hour week unless and until the majority of Governments or nation States accept it; and this seems to be the view of the case held by Mr. Lyons and his colleagues. But it can hardly be denied that the pronouncements of the Prime Minister on the subject have been vacil- , lating and indecisive, and since Sir ' F. Stewart's retirement from the Cabinet Mr. Lyons appears to have thought that the safer course would be to leave the practical application of the prin- ' ciple to State Governments and local bodies. This is the reason that the lead now given in this matter by the ' Sydney County Council is likely to pro- 1 duce a distinct impression on public ' opinion throughout the Commonwealth. ] It goes almost without saying that the objections most generally urged against the 40-htJur week are that it will inevitably mean - higher cost of \ production, a rise in the cost of living, 1 and a larger measure of unemployment. < The advocates of the scheme point out that the same fears were expressed . when hours of labour were reduced to 1 48 hours and then to 44 hours a week, t but that these gloomy predictions have all been falsified. As to the argument that Australia should not weaken her capacity for industrial competition by 1 adopting the 40-hour week before her 1 most powerful rivals are prepared to do f so, it is pointed out that the 40-hour 4 week is already operating in France, c Belgium, Italy, New Zealand, Czecho- J ?lo\ akia and the United States, and 4 there is no reasonable ground for fur- N ther delay. The. cry vthat any practical * step in this direction is premature till the question has been further discussed t and investigated has been taken up here i by the "Daily Telegraph" and other newspapers. But the 40-liour week has i been discussed at immense length and t in the minutest detail by economic authorities and in all the great indus- ( ] trial and commercial centres for many years past, and practically all that can be said on either side has been repeated' \ liiany times already. - o Move for Referendum. c ...Sir F. Stewart, who was authorised a by Mr. Lyons to support the 40-hour week at Geneva, is so convinced that '1 further discussion would be waste of h time that he is moving for a referendum j on the question, and he will have the 1 e support of a considerable body of U.A.F. - members. Naturally the * industrial Z unions here are strongly in fa'votir of ii the scheme as a remedy for uneinploy- t ment, and the recent decision of tiie " Local Government Association to sum- c port the principle has ranged a power- u ful ally on the' side of the Sydney |o County Council in the interesting and|ii important undertaking in which' it is I b now engaged. t ]