WORKERS' HOURS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 273, 17 November 1936, Page 16

WORKERS' HOURS.

IN PRIVATE HOTELS. SHORTER WEEK APPLICATION. COURT RESERVES DECISION. (By Telegraph. —Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Monday. Application for an extension of the 40-hour week to employees in private hotels was made before the Arbitration Court to-day by the New Zealand Federated Hotel and Restaurant Employees' Union. The request was opposed by the hotel proprietors, who offered a 44-hour week. The employers contended that the recent legislation did not intend to apply the 40-hour week to private hotels, as the Shops and Offices Act, 19.'10, provided for the limitation of hours of employment in hotels and restaurants to 44 a week, excluding meal times. The cost of catering in one large private hotel, as a result of increases of wages and the ■ shortening of hours, had been increased by 3G per cent. In some establishments where the proprietors had increased the tariff to meet increased costs a serious falling-off in the number of permanent boarders had taken place. Private hotels played an important part in catering for the tourist trade I which the Government was endeavouring to encourage, and if costs were increased the facilities at the disposal of tourists would have to be curtailed. i For the employees it was contended that no great hardship would be placed on employers by the operation of the 40-hour week, which had already been introduced in licensed hotels. Private hotels had been understaffed for years, and the workers had been terribly exploited during the depression. They had j now had 11 weeks' experience of the 40-hour week in licensed hotels and they could definitely assert that the operation of the shorter week had proved an unqualified success. Increased expenses brought about by the new legislation had been met in most cases by the employers reverting to 1931 tariffs. Hotel accommodation °in New Zealand was as low in price as, or lower than, in any civilised country, and tariffs in the Dominion could even be increased and then compare more than favourably with those in Australia. The hearing of evidence was concluded and the Court reserved its decision.