Shops and Offices Bill

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27657, 13 May 1955, Page 12

Shops and Offices Bill

The Shops and Offices Act, 1955, is legislation which affects a large cross-section of the community. It concerns owners and tenants of premises used for shops, offices, and warehouses; owners of businesses located in shops (these include local authorities and public bodies) and employees who work in shops; and last, but by i?o means least, the public, who use shopping facilities. By giving ample opportunities for organisations and persons interested to study the bill and to make representations about it, the Government very rightly acknowledges the wide range of interests affected by consolidations and repeals of existing legislation, by amendments, and by new provisions. The bill was introduced in the first part of the session, but will not be proceeded with until the second part. In the meantime, the Labour Bills Com-

mittee will sit for three days of each week from June 1, and will hear evidence from persons and organisations interested. Such persons and organisations should use the opportunities offered. The Minister of Labour (Mr Sullivan) has made it clear that the mere drafting of the bill does not imply that the mind of the Government is fully and finally made up on the many and diverse provisions of the bill. In Mr Sullivan’s words, the Government fully appreciates “that there might “be some provisions in the bill, “which, after hearing evidence by “ interested persons and organis- “ ations, could call for further “ consideration ”,

It must be hoped, however, that legitimate and relevant representations by organisations representing owners of premises and businesses, and employees, will not be allowed to overshadow important considerations affecting customers, which are incorporated in the bill. The chief interest the consuming public has in the bill is in the loosening it proposes of shopping hours. The 40hour week has regimented shopping hours too tightly; the public resent their shopping hours being too tightly restricted, and, as numerous breaches of the law demonstrate, the public actively oppose such restraint. The bill liberalises shopping by providing for the sale of cigarettes and smokers’ requisites at all times; by providing for the compilation of a schedule of exempted goods that may be sold by dairies when shops that normally sell such goods are closed; and by providing for a committee to advise the Minister of Labour about goods to be placed on the exempted list. No doubt, some employees’ organisations will contest these provisions of the bill as infringements of the jealouslyguarded 40-hour week, and some employers and owners of businesses will object to other shops (dairies, etc.) having the right to sell outside the days and times to which they are bound. But the basic rights of employees and employers working the 40-hour week are safeguarded by the continuation of the powers of the Court of Arbitration when making awards, to fix opening and closing hours of shops. There can be no indiscriminate opening of shops to the detriment of competing businesses, because exemptions from

closing provisions in such cases must be sought from a Magistrate’s Court. Indeed, as it is drafted, the bill

moves exceedingly cautiously (too cautiously, some will think) towards the desirable end of providing reasonable week-end shopping facilities for the public. Though it is right that the bill should have most careful consideration at sittings of the Labour Bills Committee, members of the committee, and after them the Government, must not allow the pressure of other interests to push aside the interests of the consuming public.