Doctors, Unions Worried By Spare-Time Workers

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29365, 18 November 1960, Page 24

Doctors, Unions Worried By Spare-Time Workers

[By OONALD WADE]

The cult of “keeping up with the Jones’s” which has spread so swiftly from America, has brought a new and growing social problem to Britain—the problem of the spare-time worker. Thousands of workers up and down the country are spending their off-duty hours building up part-time businesses to earn extra money. For less than half the amount charged by full-time professionals they will clean your windows, paint and decorate your house, and even carry out minor carpentry. But the remarkable growth of the army of amateur handymen is causing alarm to employers and employees in the building trades. Low Rates Particularly badly hit are the painters and decorators. Some of them have had to close down their businesses because of the amateurs, who offer low rates for their work. The professionals are so concerned that the Trades Unions Congress is to be asked to take action to cut down the activities

The professionals are so concerned that the Trades Unions Congress is to be asked to take action to cut down the activities of the spare-time brigade. In America spare-time jobs have been a regular feature of the ordinary American way of life for many years. To “keep up with the Joneses” it is essential to have a surplus of money. But now it has developed to an extent that is causing worry to politicians, employers, trade unionists and medical experts. The medical men are particularly gloomy. Leisure, they sturdily maintain, is essential for good health.

Extra work might bring in a great deal of cash—but. they warn, it will inevitably lead to an ultimate physical crack-up. A team of doctors in the United States has estimated that thousands of men holding down two or three jobs are knocking anything from five to 10 years off their life. About a fifth of America's workers are now reckoned to be running money-producing sidelines in their spare time. ’Several thousands are known to be holding down two and three full-time jobs. This sort of thing had not yet come to Britain on the same dramatic scale. But the warning light is showing. That is why the National Federation of Master Painters and Decorators and the National Society of Painters are planning their approach to the T.U.C. The painters and decorators have suffered more than anyone in the craze to cash in on spare-time work. Theirs is a job which any handyman feels competent to tackle. And the activities of the amateurs has cost the full-time professionals many thousands of pounds in lost commissions—losses which are rising annually. “Some of our smaller members have even been for’id right out of business because of this fierce competition,” , says Mr Thomas Holmes, president of the Master Painters’ Federation. “It is a very difficult problem to tackle, but something has to be done about it.” The week-end workers have grown up with the still spreading do-it-yourself craze. Having tackled work of their own successfully they have offered their services to their neighbours at much lower than normal rates. So their businesses have grown, with virtually no overheads and often with borrowed equipment. Few of them mention their additional income on their tax returns —a fact which the Inland Revenue is watching closely. The T.U.C. discourages this sort of work, particularly where it endangers the livelihood of others. At the same time they rightly insist that what a man does with his own time is his own concern.

The painters’ organisations will ask the T.U.C. to circularise all its member unions to remind trade unionists of the damage the spare-time work is causing. “We want them to point out that a shorter working week is being sought so that their members may enjoy more leisure.” says Mr Holmes.

“It is not to enable them to undertake spare-time working which can only be to the detriment of fellow trade unionists.” —(Exclusive Press Features. All Rights Reserved.)