NOTES OF THE DAY
The point for the Government to consider in connection with the remarks of speakers at the meeting of the Franklin Provincial Executive of the Farmers’ Union on Saturday is the tone and temper of the discussion. It is evident that the manner in which the. Minister of Labour handled the recent stay-in strike at Auckland has given rise to considerable feeling in the farming community. Those who spoke of direct action in the event of a similar hold-up occurring in the future were advocating, however, a course as unconstitutional as that for which they so warmly criticised the Minister. Their constitutional remedy is the ballot-box. At the same time it should be of some significance to the Government that farmers are fe'eling as they evidently do about the matter. If the Government wants law and order to prevail it should set an example by upholding the law .whenever it is challenged.
The extra expenditure involved in the introduction of the fortyhour week in the Wellington City Tramway Department was met by an increase in tram fares. From what source. is to be provided the additional f6OOO now required for the payment of double-time for Sunday work reckoned on the basis of the forty-hour week? The council’s decision to pay on this basis was taken against the recommendation of the Tramway Committee, framed on an interpretation by the city solicitor of the law on the subject. This question of Sunday pay ought to be reviewed. One can understand a man being paid extra for extra time over and above the forty-hour limit. The puzzling thing is that a man should be paid extra because he works on Sunday though he may not have worked more than a fortyhour week. The Government as a matter of policy has decided that Sunday work must be paid at extra rates. ' Why? Because of the Sabbath? Ji we make it a moral question, then it is not answered by extra payment. That is simply a compromise. If there were actual loss of leisure due the case, would be different. Workers on the Sunday shift get no less leisure than the others, but they get more pay
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Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 121, 16 February 1937, Page 8
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365NOTES OF THE DAY Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 121, 16 February 1937, Page 8
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