STAFF REDUCTIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 270, 13 November 1937, Page 18

STAFF REDUCTIONS.

i DUNEIHN BOOT TRADE.

(From Our Correspondent.)

DUXEDIX, this dav

Drastic staff reductions and shortening of employees' hours have been some results in Dunedin of the serious difficulties at present being experienced bv the boot manufacturing industry, said to bu due principally to competition from overseas and the increased cost of local production. The manager of one large factory stated that since September 1 he had been compelled to discharge no fewer than 46 employees. In the same factory the remaining hands had lost a total of 4000 hours since that date. This really meant that a reduction in staff equivalent to 70 hands had been made in the last two months.

"It has been stated that the industry is negotiating with the Government for tariff protection," said another local manufacturer, "but in my opinion auy assistance that comes from the Cabinet will not be in this form. lam convinced that it will take a vastly different form from high protective tariffs, but I cannot enlarge on that at present."