F.O.L. Claims Unsuccessful

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31497, 11 October 1967, Page 30

F.O.L. Claims Unsuccessful

(Parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON, Oct 10. Federation of Labour claims for a 35hour week, a compulsory third week’s holiday for all workers and amendments to the unemployment benefit system received little support today from the two Cabinet Ministers. The Minister of Labour (Mr Shand) said the unemployment situation would have to deteriorate grossly before he would approve of reduced working hours. The Minister of Health (Mr McKay) agreed only to look at F.O.L. claims for reforming the unemployment benefit system. Meeting the Ministers in a two-hour conclave at Parliament Buildings yesterday morning, the president of the F.O.L. (Mr T. E. Skinner) said the Government should amend ths Annual Holidays Act.

At present, many awards provided a third week of annual leave for some workers, but amendment to the Act would ensure that every worker had at least threeweeks of annual holidays. New Zealand lagged a long way behind most developed countries in the amount of annual leave it gave its workers, Mr Skinner said. Mr Shand agreed that the New Zealand total of statutory holidays and annual leave was now low when compared with the totals in other developed countries.

Working Hours But if Mr Skinner made an allowance for the 40-hour week, which was by np means universal, he would find that New Zealand ranked mid-way among advanced countries on the normal hours of employment per man. A number of the countries which had more favourable conditions for holidays had not yet secured the 40-hour week, said Mr Shand. “In these countries, the extension of holidays and the reduction of hours of work came to pass because of a policy of sharing employment; a

policy created out of chronic unemployment,” said Mr Shand.

“New Zealand, on the other hand, has over many years experienced conditions where the demand for goods and services has clearly outrun the capacity of the labour force to supply the goods and services.

“If, as some people prophesy, New Zealand is to face a continuing difficulty in providing employment for the labour force, then the case for extension of holidays for the labour force would be very much strengthened. “But I do not accept that our employment situation has yet reached a point where we should give serious consideration to reducing total working hours in order to extend employment.” Mr Shand added that almost all the unemployed people in

New Zealand today were unskilled. Even so, total unemployment represented less than 1 per cent of the workforce. There were still shortages in most areas of employment

Mr Skinner rejoined that the Minister was too optimistic and his attitude disturbed the F.O.L. Mr Shand, he said, should remember his own statements that unemployment would be with New Zealand for some time yet. Benefit Payments Addressing Mr McKay, as Minister in Charge of Social Security, Mr Skinner said: Unemployment benefits should be paid as soon as a man registered, not . a week later. Income earned by a wife should not be deducted from a man’s unemployment benefit.

Men receiving holiday pay from a ' previous job should not be barred from receiving an unemployment benefit.

Mr McKay said he had no authority to commit the Government. He agreed to look at Mr Skinner’s proposals. From Mr Shand, Mr Skinner obtained an assurance that the Labour Department would pay the removal charges and fares of shifting a man and his family to a new job, if the alternative was for him to stay on an unemployment benefit. Such payments have been rare in recent years but they sometimes exceed $lOO. From Mr McKay, he ascertained that a modified, form of supplementary assistance can now be paid to a man, usually a married man, who suffers hardship through being unemployed.