BILL TO ENSURE FULL EMPLOYMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 219, 16 September 1939, Page 10

BILL TO ENSURE FULL EMPLOYMENT.

NO OPPOSITION.

Strict Assurances To

Trade Unions. " ALMOST REVOLUTIONARY." British Official Wireless. (Rrcrive<l 1 p.m.) RUGBY, September 1">. The Control of Employment Bill, the whole object of which is to ensure the full employment of labour, especially highly trained key men in the engineering industry, in places where they are needed, and ensure that if a man is displaced he must be offered suitable alternative employment, passed its third reading in the House of Commons without a division.

Discussion with organised labour resulted ill the bill being virtually unopposed. It is warmly approved by the Press. "The Times" describes the bill as a non-contentious measure by reason of the acceptance of stricter assurance* to the trade unions, which safeguard the rights of the individual workman and of organised labour.

"The result is a further demonstration of the unity and resolve that animates the whole nation," adds "The Times." The '"Daily Herald," referring to highly important amendments incorporated in the bill by consent, as a result of which full consultation with organised labour anrif the approval of Parliament arc necessary before any order can be made under the bill, says "they show the success that can be achieved in the interests of the common people by a strong and vigilant trade union movement during the exceptional conditions of wartime."

The "Daily Telegraph" points out the bill is "almost a revolutionary measure," yet it was passed without opposition. The newspaper advances this as further proof of how strongly the country is united against Hitlerism.

■The House of Commons will meet on Wednesday and Thursday, and the newspapers anticipate that for the present sittings will be held only two, or at the most three davs weeklv.

The Ministry of Health preparations in anticipation of war emergency requirements, involving the provision of new services, now jn operation, are dealt with in the Ministry's report for the year ended March, which records the establishment of two new divisions tocoping with the treatment of air raid casualties and their evacuation.

The death rate for the year was the lowest ever recorded, while there was a slight upward turn in the birth rate. Maternal mortality for the first time fell below 3 per 1000 births. Infantile mortality also reached new low records, and deaths from tuberculosis fell sharply.