THE FACTORIES ACT.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 12969, 23 November 1907, Page 10

THE FACTORIES ACT.

THE AMENDMENT BY THE UPPER HOUSE. VIEWS OF~EMPLOYERS. Yesterday a number of employers interested in factory matters wer© seen with regard to th© amendment in the Factories Act Amendment Bill introduced by tho Legislative Council. Mr F. W. Hobbs, president of th© Employers' Association, said:—'lf. as has been suggested, the alteration in Clause 15 makes for compulsory weekly employment, it will be most strenuously objected to by th© employers from ono end of the colony to tho other. Tli© claim which is made by the Unions is that th© trade term, 'weekly wage,' shall constitute a full week's employment without any deduction in pay for time not worked by reason of slackness of trade, holidays, or from any oth<?r cause. Tin's is a point on which th© employers feel most keenly, and this amendment will Ik* tho means of perpetuating it. It is a deliberate attempt to .secure a payment that would be fair and reasonable in some occupations, but was never intended to bo applied to industrial pursuits. Industrial occupations differ from ethers wherein i weekly wag© is paid, in that in tho latter th© slack times ar© balanced by the busy periods when extra time is worked, for which no extra pay is given. In industrial pursuits overtime has to bo paid for at penalty rates. Having to pay for overtime and not to deduct for short tim© is both illogical and unfair. In our business, for instance, which is what may bo called a season's business, we have periods of tho year when things are slack. This has been met by th© work©rs taking a few days holiday, which was mutually convenient. But now, if th© amendment mado by the Legislative Council in th© Bill become* law, this will not be able to !*•;» done, because striking out the words 'at the rat© of makes it compulsory on us to pay for th© week, whether it ia fully worked or not. The wage rate was arranged at a rate designedly high to allow for slack periods, and yet give th© worker a proper annual income. To givo you an idea of the effect that the amendment will have, 1 may say that in our business it will mean that th© girls will b© out of employment five months' in tho year. Whereas, if tho system under which w© have worked was allowed to continue, this period of non-employment would be considerably reduced. This would bo owing to the elasticity of the arrangement by which th© workers could take holidays in slack times, and the employers wer& not called upon to pay for timo not worked. But, as I have pointed out, tho result under tho amended Bill will be disastrous to the. workers themselves as increasing the period when they aro out of work.'' Mr E. C. Brown, of the D.I.C, said ho thought tho members of the Legislative Council had evidently not studied what would he tho effect of tho amendment made. Shortly put, it meant this—that whenever a slack timo came, the employers would have to give their girls notice and ocas© employing them for tho time. This meant not only a disorganisation of the staff, but a disruption of th© friendly relations that should exist between employer nnd employed. Under the present system the taking ot a holiday when tho slack period enme on worked well for both parties, so far as their individual case was concerned. When Slack times cam©, hialf the room went off on holiday, and then the other half followed, should tho slackness in trntlo continue. But this would havo all to be altered if tho amendment mado by th© liegislativo Council was adopted, and it seemed to him that tho only result of the now departure would be that tho employees whom, presumedly, the Legislative Council wished to benefit, would be considerably wore© off than now. i hope, though perhaps it is too much at this period of the session to ©xpect,' Mr Brown concluded, "that the amendment will not be agreed to." air P. Hercus, on being asked to amplify the objections of tho employer* to. the proposed amendment, said: "Wo object to a weekly employment being made statutory without any deductions for tho absence of the employee from any cause whatever. , At present we., pay a week's wages every year for statutory -holidays under the Factories Act, and we object to pay for the other holidays— not statutory— that w© have to give. For instance, w© cihvn.ys dloso up for ton days between ' Chriat'mae and New Year, but we pay only for the statutory holidays in that period in accordance with the provisions of the award. Under this amendment it appears to us that we would" have to pay for the whole of that peiiod, and not only for every holiday but for any time tha* .am employee chooses to, absent himself or herself from work. That is, on the f«c© of it, how it appears to us that it would actually work out. This is in direct contravention of the award of the Arbitration Court, and would interfere very considerably with tho working of our factprie.} and ailso increase the cost of production considerably, end probably lead to a great deal of hardship to the employees themselves." Asked how it would affect the employees, Mr Hercus said that if the employer wanted to close for a day, or if he wanted to close on account of shortage of work, tho hands would have to b© discharged; whereas ot present, when work was slack, th© emI ployer was able to divide tho work up ' among all the employees, thus keeping all employed and giving all a share of the work that was going. In reply to a question whether it was customary to suspend workers before a holiday for a few days in order to avoid payment- for holidays. Mr Hercus said: "It is not th© custom in cur factory, and I never heard of it in connection with any other local factory." Mr Hagger. of the Labour Department, paid : "At the present time com© ©nmlovers are making deductions for time* lost during slackness of business in those trades in which no awards ar© in fore©. The Act now in fore© provides that ii woman of any age and boys under eighteen years of age. provided they have been employed for twenty days during the four weeks preceding a statutory holiday, are entitled to payment for such holiday. In sonio cases employers have dischargee! persons of this character some* fewdays befor© th© expiration of this period." Another employer of a. large number of factory hands practically spoke to tho some effect as sfr Hercus. The aw-i.r<l undor which h© was working, this particular employer stated, provides for the eleduction from wages of time lost either through th© default of th© worker, the breakdown of machinery, ©r shortage of work, if the time lost is for a continuous period of over ono hour. The proposed amendment to the Factories Act would overrid© this, and it would also,, ho was of opinion, over-rid© another provision of th© award stipulating that 24 hours' notice of termination of employment shall be given by the employer or employee.