THE SHOPS AND OFFICES ACT

Evening Post, Volume LXX, Issue 34, 9 August 1905, Page 5

THE SHOPS AND OFFICES ACT

REPORT OF PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE. The Labour Bills Committee brought its ieport on the Shops and Offices Bill before the House yesterday. * Clause 3 of the Bill, which, provided a fifty-two hours' week for assistants, has been struck out, and the following substituted: "A shop assistant shall not be employed (a) in- a shop required under section 21 of the principal Act to close at a specified hour after the hour so specified ; nor (b) in any other shop — (Vf if any of the trades mentioned on the first schedule (chemists, tobacconists, dairy produce sellers, 'florists, bakers, hairdressers, booksellers) is carried on therein after 11 o'clock in the evening in one working day dv each week or 8 o'clock in the evening on other working days ; nor (2f if any of the trades mentioned in the second schedule (fruiterers, confectioners, refreshment room keepers, pork butchers, fishmongers) is carried on therein after 11 o'clock in the evening on one working day in each week or 10,30 o'clock in the evening on other working days; nor (3) if none of the trades mentioned in the first or second schedules is carried on therein after 11 o'clock in the evening on one working day in each week or 6 o'clock in the evening on other working days." These provisions are not to affect the provisions of the principal Act relating to hours of employment or the weekly half-holiday. The selling of rabbits is included in the definition of a fishmonger. Section 23 of the principal Act, providing a- closing hour for ofnces, is not to apply to the following offices : Shipping, railway, tramway, newspaper, telegraph agencies, cable conimnies, forwarding agencies, live stock auctioneers, building societies, merchants (including warehousemen), insurance, banks, wool buyers and wool brokers. Section 23 of the principal Act is also amended by repealing the provision which provided that no requisition (of a majority of shopkeepers in a district to fix an hour for closing) shall be acted upon by tho Minister unless the local authority has certified that the signatures to the requisition represent a majority of the occupiers of all the shops within tho district. In regard to the offices exempted from observing a closing hour it' is provided that 'the occupier must keep"> correct record showing, in the case of each office as.sistant employed after 1 p.m. on Saturday and 5 p.m. on other days, the name of the assistant and the dates and periods of such employment. If the extra time exceeds in respect of any assistant twenty .hours in a month t he must be paid, after that twenty hours, overtime at one and a half times the ordinary rate of pay. As it h' difficult without legal training to fully understand the position of the Bill as recommended to the_ House by tho Labour Bills Committee we append the following explanation: — The main principle as to closing shops is by local option, that is, by the votes of a majority of shopkeepers. This confirms the principle asserted in section 21 of the Act now in force, but adds tho important proviso that the hour decided upon for closing by a- particular trade shall supersede for that trade the hour of closing selected by tho general majority of shopkeepers. Unless so arranged under section 21 assistants must not be kept after six in the evening in ordinary shops on four working days of the week, nor after 11 on the long night. Assistants in shops kept by chemists, hairdressers, tobacconists', booksellers, dairy produce sellers, florists, and bakers, must not be kept beyond 8 p.m. on ordinary nights and 11 p.m. on the long night. Assistants in the establishments of fruiterers, confectioners, pork butchers, fishmongers, and rcfre3hment-room-keepei's are nob to be kept bbyond 10.30 p.m. on ordinary nights or 11 p.m. on the long night. Concerning oftices, a limit has been drawn between what is considered reasonable and excessive overtime, pay* ments. Twenty hours per month per man has been allowed as legitimate overtime for which no payment is compulsory, beyond that limit overtime must bo paid for at one <tna half time« ordinary rate of pay. This provision applies to most large offices, including banks and warehouses.