40-HOUR WEEK

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30231, 9 September 1963, Page 19

40-HOUR WEEK

Support By T.U.C. (N.Z. P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) BRIGHTON, Sept. 6. The annual assembly of the British Trades Union Congress at its session today strongly reaffirmed its support for a 40-hour week for all workers, and delegates were warned that argument alone would not be enough to get it. Mr Jack Marshall, of the Amalgamated Woodworkers’ Society, said employers sometimes told them the shorter working week was simply a means for an individual measuring rod for overtime payments.

‘‘What an impertinence, ” he said, “When we seek overtime it is because the basic rate is such that it does not afford a decent standard of living without it.” A Shopworkers’ Union resolution called on the next Labour government to introduce legislation ensuring equal pay for men and women for equal work. The national Union of Public Employees in an amendment asked the congress to urge the Government to implement immediately the principle of equal pay in all fields of public employment as a first stage in the process. The amendment was defeated in a card vote and the “equal pay” resolution carried without dissent. The congress rejected a resolution asking its leaders to do all they could to ensure measures being taken to allow rents to be admissable in claiming allowances for income-tax purposes. But it approved another urging the Chancellor of the Exchequer to increase personal allowances against income tax in view of the reduced purchasing power of the £.