Shopping Hours

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27442, 31 August 1954, Page 10

Shopping Hours

Some belated but very welcome 1 concern for shoppers and for the ! law prescribing trading hours for shops was expressed in the House of Representatives by the Minister of Labour (Mr Sullivan) during the second reading debate on the Labour Department Bill. The Minister said that since shopping had been confined to five days, generally Monday to Friday, the public has wanted service outside this time and has sought it; as a result breaches of the law have edme about. Mr Sullivan thought, therefore, that “ sooner or later ” Parliament would have to “ face the “issue" of the five-day week for shopping. He said that when the 40-hour week was adopted “it was “never intended to be confined to “five days, Monday to Friday”. The 40-hour; week is not, in fact, so confined in many- industries and services— and the strongest advocates of the 40-hour week would be loudest among those complaining if there were no electric power, public transport, newspapers, broadcasts, or police protection on Saturdays and Sundays. But because of effects of the Shops and Offices Act, the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act, and particularly of the powers of the Court of Arbitration to fix opening and closing hours of shops when making awards, shopping facilities are available generally only from Mondays to Fridays. In some districts there is relief where adjacent areas (by their bwn choice) observe a closing day other than Saturday; New Brighton provides such relief in Christchurch. But generally speaking, the 40-hour week has regimented shopping too tightly. This the public resents; and, as numerous breaches of . the law demonstrate, actively oppose*. Laws must have public assent; without it they fall into disrespect. There is a strong case for extending shopping hours generally to Saturday mornings to liberalise shopping facilities. The 40-hour week for shop assistants could be preserved, exactly as it is under awards governing persons who work on Saturdays and Sundays to provide essential services to the community. The Minister of Labour gav« excellent reasons

for a review of the Bystem of shopping hour* that has evolved from the 40-hour week. It is a pity he could not promise that the review would be undertaken sooner rather than later.