HIGH COST OF SHORT HOURS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 88, 15 April 1942, Page 6

HIGH COST OF SHORT HOURS

"THE Transport Board's decision to employ women in its traffic depart- * ment deserves public attention for two reasons. First, the estimates furnished the board by its engineer and manager enable a clear view to be obtained of the effects on one large undertaking of the Government s adherence to the 40-hour week. It involves, according to these estimates, the employment of 108 more men than .would be needed if worked f our hours a week longer. But if this were done the additional cost to the board would approximate £17,768 a year! This la because of the Government's policy of requiring hours worked in excess of 40 to be paid for at the rate of time and a half. The effect of this policy is here apparent In one public undertaking only. The full effect in the Dominion possibly could not be computed even bv the Government, which may know the costs of State undertakings but can hardly be in possession of the facts relating to all private industry. What is certain is that the money cost of the war has been and continues to be, much higher than it need be if the Government had decided that, say, a 44-hour week at ordinary rates of pav would not involve an excessive "sacrifice" by anybody. And part of this additional cost-—that part not met by taxation—remains as debt, on which interest payments will continue to be due, and taxes to be paid to meet them. The second point is that the board, having decided that an additional payment of £17,768 could not be borne, decided tp employ women and also to pay them at the same rates as men. It did so in the knowledge that the Post and Telegraph Department, now emploving many women to replace men, is not paying them men's wages. Waiving the question of the relative efficiency of men and women, it may be asked why « woman who replaces a man in the post office should receive £118 a 2£ ar "„ sh ? •J° ined the tramways she might expect to receive more than £300. Such contrasts, which will inevitably be drawn do nothing to promote industrial harmony, and the occasion for them should be averted by Government action designed to bring about approximate uniformity.