Five-day week to be defended

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34047, 10 January 1976, Page 14

Five-day week to be defended

(Neto Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, January 9. ~~ Most shop employers and employees will oppose any campaign for Saturday shopping.

The secretary-manager of the Auckland Provincial Retailers’ Association (Mr R. M. Barker) said that for more than 30 years the employers had continued to press for the retention of the five-day’ trading week.

’ Many retailers assert that; that has been the greatest! (advance in retailing in the (last half-century. Mr Barker was replying to) : comments made by a ; Saturday-opening enthusiast, Mr R. A. Wilson, that a campaign to support shopkeepers having the right to choose whether they should open on i Saturdays would be opened at fne end of the month. ! Mr Wilson said he had i about 50 small shopkeepers and retailers interested in the 'campaign, and had support from the public.

i His campaign has also been

(criticised by the secretary of I the Auckland Amalgamated 'Society of Shop Assistants' (Mr T. H. De Thierry). He [said the union was opposed to Saturday shopping in principle. The union has the full support of the Auckland Trades Council and the Federation of Labour, which passed a remit at its last conference supporting the Monday to Friday working week and no extended hours for week-end shopping. Mr Barker said it ill became Mr Wilson to launch a campaign for Saturday shopping. “According to his own statement he has about 40 prosecutions for afterhours trading.”

Mr Barker said that if Mr Wilson thinks that the increased fine of §250 (previously it was S5O) for illegally trading on Saturdays was too much for the owners to pay, then it had achieved its purpose. ! ‘’Get facts right* “Mr Wilson would do well! [to get the facts right before 'he launches his campaign. He isays that before World War [II we had Saturday shopping (but it was stopped for what 'were then good reasons. “The facts are that Satur-| [day morning shopping was (stopped because claims for a i five-day week were filed by (the Retailers’ Association, ' not by the Shop Assistants’ ; Union, as thought by many ' people.” Mr Barker added that the ' late night has been, and still is, the only trading period outside working hours for many thousands of workers engaged in industry. Mr De Thierry said Mr Wilson had not stated the num- . ber of shops open in the exempted areas in Auckland

, — such as Browns Bay, Mai- ) tangi Bay and Parnell — that [found Saturday trading was not a paying proposition and I were shut. Closed one day “In some areas where there (is Saturday trading, shops are closed on one day during the wek, so more business is not done.” Mr De Thierry deplores the fact that people are not conscious of the number of shops open on Saturdays and Sundays because of all the comments made about no week-end trading. He points out the large number of seven-day “superettes.” Mr De Thierry agrees with Mr Barker that the war had nothing to do with ending Saturday trading. “It was decided to have a Monday to Friday working week. The ideal was to have a situation where a person could earn enough in five days to have a reasonable standard of living and a long week-end,” he said.