ABSENTEEISM AND THE LAW

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 115, 10 February 1944, Page 4

ABSENTEEISM AND THE LAW

Certain of the conclusions reached by Dr. A. E. C. Hare in his survey of industrial absenteeism (published yesterday) may mislead citizens who have not closely studied the past history of this wartime evil. ■ For example, it is remarked -in the survey that the National Service Regulations seem to be “very largely, a dead letter, as few employers take the trouble to notify manpower officers. If that is occurring today.it is a legacy of ineffectual official action in the past. The exercise of emergency power so as to prevent absenteeism has been such that many employers lost faith a year or more ago—-and have never regained it. They ceased to notify manpower officers of absentee workers not because this was a trouble, but because it was a waste 0 time. In the majority of cases no effective action was taken; in some there was simply inaction. c a • The survey acknowledges the past existence of this state ot affairs by referring to the “many complaints from manufacturers that it was useless to report offenders.” It is true that the authorities have since undertaken to adopt a stricter policy, but by and large there has been little evidence that this change is ■ being resolutely brought about. Absenteeism was prevalent after the Christmas and New Tear holiday period, but the official attitude toward it appeared in many cases to be one merely of reluctant tolerance. Dr. Hare says: “It is very doubtful how far a stricter policy of fining absentees will ever prove effective.” This is a matter of opinion and must remain so until the experiment is tried in a systematic, disciplined way. Absenteeism is a form of slacking which, in the highest interests of a nation at war, cannot be .permitted. Military slacking carries with it a virtua certainty of punishment, and in consequence the percentage of military slackers is small. There is no reason to suppose that the result in the case of civilian service would be markedly different. There is no good reason why the civilian slacker should be corrected less firmly than his military counterpart. . . Prominent among the causes of industrial absenteeism is one which seems to receive curiously little recognition. This is t.re per-sonal-economy cause. Mirny young workers on hourly rates of payare able during the present period of wage inflation to earn sufficient to satisfy their needs without working every day. In such cases the main incentive to work is restricted, and absenteeism is the resuit. Jn these and other cases discipline is essential if a continuous national loss of working time, and therefore of production, is to be avoided. io sneak of abolishing penalties for'absenteeism and illegal striking is gravelv unwise. It is true, as Dr. Hare’s survey remarks, that to have laws and not enforce them reduces the law to a farce; indeed this all too common condition of things is a constant threat to the moral fibre of our community. But the remedy is not as may be implied the abolition of the laws. That way, if logically followed, would lead to chaos. The remedy is in the enforcement of the law without fear or favour. --