REDUCTION OF HOURS

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21808, 13 June 1936, Page 14

REDUCTION OF HOURS

CHANGES IN WORKING WEEK HISTORY OF NEW ZEALAND REFORMS (SPECIALLY WRITTEN FOR THE PRESS.,' IBy G. W. BAGLEY.] I. A comparison of present-day conditions with those of the "nineties of last century shows that one of the products of a period of recovery from depression is a demand for better working conditions. The industrial and social reforms to be seen in the policy and proposed measures of the present Government bear a striking analogy to those introduced by the Ballance and Seddon Governments after the acute slump experienced between 1880 and 1890. Although the struggle for the reduction of working hours in New Zealand is often claimed to have been waged by the trade unions, it is generally overlooked that the author of the Imdustrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act, which provided the machinery for so many of the reforms, was the Hon. W. Pember Reeves, who held office in the Ballance Government as the first Minister for Labour in the world. Under his guidance this act, which set a new world standard in providing for the compulsory settlement of disputes, was placed upon the Statute Book and, except for the recent period when its provisions were regulated by the Coalition Government’s emergency legislation in 1931, it has operated very successfully to provide the means of settling a large number of industrial disputes.

The Eight-Hour Day Slogan Before the passing of the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act, however, there had been some earlier successful attempts to bring about reforms in the conditions of employment- As early as 1873 the principle of an eight-hour day was recognised by the New Zealand Parliament, and a brief bill applying the principle to women and boys employed in factories was passed with a remarkable lack of fuss or ceremony. At that time New Zealand enjoyed a world-wide fame for its slogan: “Eight hours’ work, eight hours’ play, eight hours’ sleep and eight* bob a day,” but several years elapsed before male workers were allowed to enjoy these advantages. In 1879 there began the era of low prices, which placed an effective check upon immigration, and culminated in the great slump of the ’eighties. Wages in the colony fell to a very low level, and though in a few isolated instances well-organ-ised unions were able to arrest the process, there was a good deal of exploitation of the overcrowded labour market by unscrupulous employers. Women and children were freely employed at only nominal wages to do work which had been done by male breadwinners, and the evil of sweating reached considerable dimensions until an exposure was made by the newspapers of New Zealand in 1889.

Exposure of Sweating Although factories had not been established in the colony for any more than 20 years at that time, the “Otago Daily Times” commenced the exposure with a series of articles describing the sweating that was taking place in Dunedin clothing factories. It was shown that women employed as shirt-makers were working from 8.30 a.m. to 11 p.m. for six days a week to earn a miserable eighteen pence, and in other cases women were taking work home to finish after their day’s work in the factory was over. The upheaval of public opinion caused by the newspaper disclosures resulted in the appointment of a Royal Commission to enquire into the state of labour and industry, and it was as a direct outcome of its report that a series of reforming laws was passed by the Ballance and Seddon administrations between 1891 and 1901. Between the \Workshops Act of 1873, which introduced the eighthour day, in theory, for women and boys, and the first Factories Act of 1891, there were only one or two minor amendments to the pioneer act, passed to cure its more obvious defects and omissions. They amounted to very little. Women on piecework were put on the same footing as women on time-work; children between 10 and 14 were put on halftune, and in 1881 the factory age was raised to 12 years; and extra pay was provided for women and boys under 18 for working overtime.

Fixation of Hours The first Factory Act was introduced by the Ballance Government almost immediately after taking office. It contained provisions for the proper regulation, inspection and control of factories, but its most important clauses were those dealing with hours of work. These reaffirmed the principles which had been stated in the earlier Workshops Act, and by placing the administration of the act in the hands of inspectors in the cities, and the police in the other towns, provided effective machinery for the enfeKjemenf of regulations which had fallen into abeyance during the slump The ’maximum hours a week for women and boys under 16 were fixed at 48; overtime wa* limited to 20 days of three hou?I each in a year, and one half-holiday a week was prescribed. No provision was as yet made for men over Regulation of the conditions of employment of shop assistants, howabn°st to \ all y non-existent, the first enactment affecting this type of worker being in 1892. The Shops and Shop Assistants Act of that year provided a weekly has- - on a day to be agreed upon for each assistant, but a reservati™ was made that no half-holiday was necessary if a public holiday felL 5 the same week. There was nore stnction on the number of hours to be worked by men hut o " • xo of 58 hours was fixed for w?iSjfll!S boys under 18. An amending St passed in 1894. provided thlt all shops in towns should owl aiJ haU-day each weefc any public holidays, and^hisnr^ led to aa intarestin*