40-HOUR WEEK

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 253, 22 July 1936, Page 8

40-HOUR WEEK

Purpose of Legislation NO DIRECTION Observations regarding the purpose of the legislation were made by Mr. E. W. Clarkson, secretary of the New Zealand Master Printers’ Federation, during the hearing in the Arbitration Court, yesterday, of the Commercial Printers’, Stationers’ and Process Engravers’ application for extension of working hours. It was submitted first that the legislation was not a peremptory direction to the court to reduce working hours to 40 a week, second, that the discretion of the court might be exercised whenever the conditions of employment in an industry were brought under review by the presentation of proposals for a new award. The only peremptory direction to the court was that hours for workers in factories should not exceed 44 a week, so that the legislation recognised that some industries could not be carried on efficiently if -their working week were less. The legislature had fixed the hours for shops at 44 precisely, and in other occupations, while declaring the ideal arrangement would be a 40-hour week, had placed upon the court the responsibility of determining whether the ideal could be applied in practice. Mr. Clarkson suggested that the project of a general 40-hour week was inspired by an abstract conception of social reform, and by an ingenuous assumption that all employers made enormous profits, and that industry could support an unlimited wages bill. The submissions to be made in support of the applications were based not only upon incontestable facts but also on the firm belief that the legislature did not contemplate the undermining of industries of such magnitude and importance. In its judgment in regard to the clothing trade applications, the court had announced its opinion “that the question of the ability of the industry to operate profitably is the crucial test.”

Oamaru Retailers’ Opposition By Telegraph—Press Association. Oamaru, July 21. A representative meeting of Oamaru business men last night carried a motion strongly protesting against the 40hour week and suggesting that the New Zealand Federation of Retailers be asked to support a 44-hour week.