Curbs In Factories Act Defended

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31894, 23 January 1969, Page 10

Curbs In Factories Act Defended

Go-go dancers in New Zealand, or anywhere else, did not work eight-hour shifts, nor did they work under pressure with industrial machines, said the general secretary of the New Zealand Clothing Workers’ Federation (Mr R. A. Hill) yesterday.

Mr Hill was commenting on the statement by the president of the Canterbury Manufacturers’ Association (Mr A. S. Farrar) that a 40-year-old married woman could not be employed in a factory at 12 p.m. on a Saturday, but.a 16-year-old go-go. dancer could be legally employed on a Sunday morning. Mr Farrar had Said it was ironical that, with some exceptions such as specially arranged twilight shifts, restrictions on the employment of women at night and during week-ends applied only to the productive sectors of the economy.

“For employers to compare female workers who would be engaged in factory production with go-go dancers shows a lack of concern for the interests of female workers, including married women with family responsibilities,” said Mr Hill. Twilight Shifts Mr Hill said that at the meeting of the association’s council Mr B. Carey had been quoted as saying that “the resultant agreement we got for twilight shifts was very good.” “Mr Carey probably never said a truer word, from the employers’ point of view, when he said the agreement was very good,” said Mr Hill. “But it would not have been a good agreement from the workers’ point of view.”

Mr Hill said he fully agreed with Mr T. L. Uren that there were many jobs women could do as well as men, or even better, but Mr Uren, and others like him, should give some consideration to ensure that these women were paid men’s wages. “Or is it that Mr Uren wishes to use female labour from the point of view of cheapness and financial exploitation?" Mr Hill asked. It was because of actions by the trade unions seeking to safeguard the health and welfare of female workers that the Factories Act came into being. Mr Hill said. Amendments had been made to the act over the years for the continued protection of female and junior labour.

Much of this had come about because the unions were fitly cognisant of and alert to the inherent dangers of the exploitation of female and junior labour.

Twilight shifts had come into being in certain industries only in war time, when women were called on to make great sacrifices to aid the war effort. In some cases these twilight shifts were being continued, but certainly not in the clothing industry, Mr Hill said.' “There are a few thousand registered unemployed in New Zealand who cannot get jobs in ordinary hours. Perhaps the employers, instead of trying to recruit cheap female labour from married women at night time, should offer some co-operation to find jobs for the unemployed with families to support,” Mr Hill said.