FORTY-HOUR WEEK

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 133, 29 February 1936, Page 10

FORTY-HOUR WEEK

Minister Defines His Intention APPLICATION BY COURT By Telegraph—Press Association. Christchurch, February 28. “My idea is to lay down the principle of a 40-hour week in law and to leave its application in each line of business to the good sense of the Arbitration Court,” said the Minister of Labour, Hon. H. T. Armstrong, to-day, when he was asked if the introduction of a shorter working week to the retail trade would mean the abolition of the late shopping night. He said he realised that there were some liiies of business where the application of the shorter week would 'offer more difficulties than in most, but in these cases,the employers would receive the right to state their objections and to seek exemption from the Arbitration Court. To safeguard against after-hbur trading by smaller shops, especially those in which a man employed members of his family, the Shops and Offices Act, as amended, would have to be rigidly enforced. Mr. Armstrong said there were several grievances about the hours of trading. For instance tobacconists considered that cigarettes should not be sold outside the hours during which they kept their own shops open. Not long ago he had had representations from the booksellers, who complained about persons putside their trade selling papers, especially weekly papers, after booksellers’ hours. The law war, being evaded to a certain extent, Mr. Armstrong added, but offences were difficult to detect, for it seem</l to be a British trait not to act as an informer.