PRESS ASSOCIATION. SHOPS AND OFFICES ACT.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 21, 26 January 1911, Page 3

PRESS ASSOCIATION. SHOPS AND OFFICES ACT.

SCATHING CRITICISM. DUNEDIN, 25th January. Clause 13 of the Shops and Offices 'Act Amendment Act, 1910, came in foi? some scathing criticism at a meeting of the local master drapers. It was stated that under clause 13 it was made compulsory that every shop shall be registered by the occupier thereof jvjtn the. >

Inspector of Factories in the* name of one person as occupier, and, excepting in the case of husband or wife, any other person engaged in the business of the shop was deemed a shop assistant, the result being that in a case where the business was owned by partners: one had to declare himself occupier, while the other was deemed a shop assistant un- | der the Act. An employer so situated j was required to get a permit to work I outside the prescribed hours, and then only permitted to do so to a limited extent. Het was also completed to fill in the hours he worked and the wages he received in a book to be approved i by the inspector. This clause was regarded by the master drapers as gross • interference with the rights of employers, and as an extremely stupid provision. .. The meeting decided to petition the New Zealand Employers' Federation through the Otago Association to have the clause amended at the earliest opportunity.