LINES ABOUT LABOUR.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 78, 28 September 1907, Page 16

LINES ABOUT LABOUR.

1 Recent information from Christiania stated that there was imminent a great lock-out of men engaged in the manufacture of paper from wood-pulp in Norway. If the masters close tho works nearly eight thousand workpeople will bo concerned. The Japanese employed in California have formed a large union, and are demanding increased wages and an eighthour day. If the "yellow peril" proceeds on these lines (says " Industrial Tramp " in the Auckland Star) it will cease to exist. The New Zealand Federated Tailoresses have decided to oppose the clause in the Arbitration Act Amendment Bill, which provides that it shall be compulsory that officers of tho unions shall be engaged in the industry. Tho application of the Auckland Livery Stables Employees for registration as an industrial union has been refused by the Registrar of Industrial Unions, on the ground that the members can conveniently join the existing Cabmen's Union. Wnile this is true of those employees who are possessed of drivers' licenses (writes the Star), it is also true that the grooms and stable-helpers, who arc just as anxious to reap the benefit of shorter hours and better conditions, are debarred from joining tho Cabmen's Union because they a.ro not licensed drivers. 4 The " strap-hanger " question has been settled — so far as the Auckland City Council is concerned — and the bylaws permitting standing in a full car will come into operation in the third week in October. This is A of course, providing that no hitch occurs in the meantime. But (says " Industrial Tramp ") the Aucklaud Tramways employees have not finished yet, and at the next meeting of the Management Committee the question of taking the matter to the Supreme Court to get an injunction will be considered. Post Office servants (says Lloyd* Weekly) havo long been clamouring for the consideration of many grievances which they have with much justification nursed among themselves and laid before the public. Their work is essential and lesponsible, and it is right that they should be treated with consideration. The State should be the model employer, setting an example to all private employers in the treatment of its servants. Of course, it should not discharge this duty by establishing a privileged class enjoying rights and privileges denied to other branches of labour working for private interest ; but of this there is little danger in the present active state of public opinion among the working class. The Government of the day realised, however, that behind so formidable a volume of complaint there must be some solid foundation. Therefore a Select Committee was appointed to take evidence and re- 1 port on the subject, and its declarations have just beon made public in the form of a Blue-book. Their proposed reforms, if carried out, are estimated to cost from £300,000 to £500,000 a year, but this will not be grudged if a collateral benefit is gained in the shape of a greater contentment and efficiency in the postal service. Unhappily there is some reason to conclude, from the criticisms which have been passed on the report by those most intimately concerned, that these recommendations will not fully satisfy the postal staff, and that tho agitation fov further concessions will be continued. Let us see (it goes on to say) what the Committee proposes the Government should do. It fixes the hours of night duty, holding that seven hours of night work should bo regarded as equivalent to eight hours of day work ; and it makes recommendations as to leavo in lieu of lost bank-holidays, and the provision of weekly half -holidays. It suggests the limitation of casual and auxiliary labour so that the permanent staff should gain in consolidation ; it rearranges the holiday system and proposes that fines should be applied to benovolent purposes for the whole staff. It recommends many increases in wages, and rearrangements of duty which will operato beneficially both in the reduction of strain and in the reduction of the volume of labour exacted for the pay given. It endeavours to adjust salaries and wages to the cost of living in the districts where the postal servants aro employed, and seeks to secure better remuneration and more comfortable conditions for many grades of these servants of the State. On the vexed question of Christmas boxes it has come to tho conclusion that its abolition is not possible, and that it must be recognised as it is at the present time. Surely, if the Government can be persuaded to adopt these recommendations, and to give them effect in the uiear future, the postal servants ought not to be disappointed. They may not concede all that is demanded, but they are a considerable step in advance, and should be accepted, at least, as an instalment of favours and blessings to come. After all, there is a security and dignity abont labour for the State which is not a wholly negligible quantity in the estimate of its advantages, and concessions which ' will cost half a million of money and place that sum in the pockets of the postal wolkers are worthy of acceptance. With fair wages, fixity of tenure, and fair conditions, tho postal servants ought to-^be satisfied, and in so far as this report supports their claim for the three F's, it should be received with satisfaction.