Tourists to the fore in Saturday trading

Press, 28 August 1980, Page 8

Tourists to the fore in Saturday trading

Parliamentary reporter Tourists provided half the Saturday trade of shops in th° Auckland central city area, said Mr M. D. Dow, co-ordinator of the Auckland Inner City Progressive Retailers’ Association, to the Shop Trading Hours Select Committee in Wellington on Tuesday. The committee began hearing submissions on the Shop Trading Hours Amendment Bill on Tuesday, ana is expected to continue for several weeks. Mr Dow said that half the trade in shops open in central Auckland, on Saturdays was in overseas currency. Saturday sales comprised 10 per cent of total weekly takings in his own record shop. He said that there had been no price increases since inner-city shops began trading illegally last year. Other record shops had not been forced to open to compete with his 9 a.m. to -9 p.m. hours on week-days. The Opposition spokesman on labour (Mr T. K. Burke) asked whether Saturday trading had increased parttime and teen-age employment in the area.

Mr Dow said that parttime employment had increased, but he was not sure that more juniors were being employed. Staff working on Saturdays were paid at double rates, clear of tax. He asked the committee to make the bill retrospective to November, 1979, the date of the association’s formation.

Mr N. P. H. Jones (Invercargill). You broke the law: you should pay the penalty. Mr Dow: We have not broken the law yet. The High Court has yet to test this.

Mr Bolger: (Minister of Labour). I understand that 160 prosecutions against Auckland retailers have already been heard by the courts, and others are ready to proceed. The Clerical Workers’ Association, representing

45,000 members, said it opposed the bill in its entirety. Mr Bolger asked the association’s secretary, Mr J. Slater, if the association had noticed adverse reactions from member staff employed on Saturdays. Mr Slater said that members working on Saturdays at Paraparaumu said they “were fed up” with working on Saturdays, and “preferred not to have it.” Members did not want davs off on Sunday and Monday .because children would be at school on Mondays, and many recreational facilities would not be open. Mr Bolger drew attention to the association’s submission, which said that although Tasmanian shops

were permitted to open al! day on Saturdays, not all did.

“In 13 years, commercial pressure has not prompted all Tasmanian shops to open,” he said. Mr Slater said that Tasmanian conditions did not necessarily apply in New Zealand. The Bank Officers’ Industrial Union of Workers, representing 13,000 employees in trading banks, said that members would strike if' thq Government decided to im< plement Saturday trading. Trading banks would ba forced to open as otheij financial institutions sought a competitive edge, said thq association’s general secretary, Mr W. D. Aimer.