The Press TUESDAY, MARCH 30, 1971. Four days and 40 hours

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32568, 30 March 1971, Page 16

The Press TUESDAY, MARCH 30, 1971. Four days and 40 hours

Proposals for a four-day working week in a Christchurch panel-beating shop have been noticed unfavourably by other employers. The four-day, 40hour week has begun, in a small way, to gain ground in the United States. Usually promoted by management, and almost invariably adopted eagerly by employees, it has reduced absenteeism and generally raised output. It does not suit all kinds of industry and it has not found favour where hard manual labour is involved. The results have not always been satisfactory; but carefully prepared for its introduction into suitable industries, the fourday week is now considered in the United States to have much to commend it In spite of the longer daily hours, employees are said to feel less tired, they can take advantage of recreational facilities quite inadequate to meet the normal week-end demand; and industries which have previously found recruiting difficult have often been rushed by people seeking jobs under the new scheme. The main purpose of the Christchurch firm which has offered a four-day week is to attract staff; and apparently it is succeeding. Its plan should not be confused with the object of the Australian trade union movement, which is to introduce a 35hour week. More important, it differs in one major respect from the usual arrangement in the United States, where companies which have adopted a fourday week pay only standard rates of wages on time worked up to 40 hours. The Christchurch firm, English Motors, Ltd, proposes to pay for the last two hours of each 10-hour day at overtime rates. If output rises sufficiently it will pay the firm to do so. But if this practice were followed widely at the present time, and failed to secure commensurate increases in output, it would make nonsense of measures to restrict wage and price increases to reasonable levels. Prudent unions and employers will look thoroughly and cautiously at the idea of the four-day week. It would not suit all industries equally well. In some it would allow the more efficient use of plant and, as has happened in the United States, make the introduction of shift work more attractive.

Some American industries have used it to lengthen the hours of service they give to customers; others have reduced their hours of business. The longer day has not found favour with all working wives—nor with their husbands who come home expecting dinner to be ready. But some women have welcomed the change; it has been adopted enthusiastically and successfully in some hospitals and police forces. Certainly the idea should not be condemned out of hand in New Zealand. Mrs Riva Poor, author of the most detailed study of the innovation in the United States, has said: “The plan is not magic, “ and it is no cure for bad management But new “ things have a way of catching on rapidly in today’s “ world, and this is something new that worth “ looking at