THE FORTY-HOUR WEEK

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21701, 7 February 1936, Page 19

THE FORTY-HOUR WEEK

POSSIBLE INTRODUCTION IN AUSTRALIA

REPRESENTATIVE CONFERENCE TO BE HELD

(FBOM OTO OWK CORRESPONDENT.) SYDNEY, January 30. A 40-hour working week as a means of reducing unemployment and of overcoming the ill-effects of industrialism, has been brought nearer by the decision of the Federal Government to convene a conference to discuss working hours in industry. The conference will consist of -the Chief Judge of the Commonwealth Arbitration Court, representatives of the state industrial tribunals, four employers representing primary industries and manufacturing and commercial interests, four representatives of organised labour, an economist, a doctor, a woman representing consuming interests, an officer of the Commonwealth Treasury, and an officer of the Customs Department. The business of the conference will be: "To enquire into and report upon the question of whether any general reduction of working hours in Australia, is desirable or practicable, having regard to the social, economic, and national interests of Australia as a whole." The Prime Minister (Mr J. A. Lyons) said that the conference had been called because of the importance of obtaining information and considered opinions on working hours. The Ministry realised that the Commonwealth Parliament had no power to legislate generally for hours of labour, which must still be controlled largely by state parliaments and by industrial tribunals, exercising their own judgment. Favoured in Victoria The recent report of a Victorian Parliamentary select committee, with its unanimous declaration of the "social and economic desirability of a reduced working week" and its majority recommendation in favour of statutory action to ensure a 40-hour week in Victorian industry, indicates the trend of political thought in a state which has not always been noted for "advanced" industrial ideas.

The Federal conference is the outcome of a public discussion between supporters and opponents of a 40hour working week. There has been no regularly-organised campaign by the unions to secure such hours. Many of them seek an even snorter week, but union leaders generally have expressed approval of the 40hour week as a step towards an even greater reduction of working hours.

The greatest champion of the 40hour week is Sir Frederick Stewart, Federal Parliamentary Under-Secre-tary for Re-employment. He at-, tended the last conference of the International Labour Office at Geneva, and took a prominent part in the discussion there on the shorter working week. He returned to Australia confirmed in his belief that

a wider sharing of the benefits of mechanisation and general industrial improvements must be made if social progress is to be maintained. In the two or three months since his return, Sir Frederick Stewart has conducted a vigorous campaign in favour of the 40-hour week. He started it by instituting such a week, without reduction of wages, in a textile factory under his control, citing his action as a practical demonstration of his belief. "While in England I purchased new labour-saving machinery for the mill," he said,; "and I felt that I could not install it without, giving the employees " a share of the resultant benefits. Maximum production from the machine with a minimum of human effort must, in my opinion, be the policy of the future. Distribution of Employment "I believe," he said, "that the abatement of laborious or monotonous human effort by mechanical means is a providential dispensation? of which mankind should take full; advantage, but I do not believe that providence intended that all the cash benefits of such should, flow in one direction, and all the economic disabilities in another. How can that point of view be translated into action? To bestow some measure of improved conditions or emolument on the 85 per cent, of Australian workmen now in employment would be small comfort to the 15 per cent, of unemployed, who are the real victims of the new industrialism.

"The simplest and most logical method by which the benefits of improved industrial technique might be equitably distributed is by a wider . distribution of the reduced volume of employment. This implies a reduction in the standard hours of work, with consequent re-engage-ment of some of those now idle. The average working week throughout Australian industry to-day is about 45 hours. No one would suggest that a reduction to 40 hours would solve our unemployment problem, but it would at least make a valuable contribution in that direction.

"I am aware that many people just as anxious as I to concede equitable working conditions are influ- ! enced in their attitude to this issue by a lurking fear that unilateral action by Australia would prejudicially affect us in competition with the rest of the world. This has been the basic plea of the opponent of improved conditions right through our industrial history. It has not, however, prevented us from leading the world in adopting first the 48-hour week, and ultimately the 44-hour week, nor have any of the direful results so repeatedly forecast been realised. While I agree that action on an international basis would be most desirable—and the fact that at the recent Geneva conference 27 nations supported the principle brings international action much closer than is generally supposed—l cannot agree with the point of view that we can do nothing meanwhile."