REDUCING PRODUCTION

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 151, 23 December 1921, Page 7

REDUCING PRODUCTION

AUSTRALIAN HIGH COURT WARNS UNIONS. , (WOM OUR OWN COKnEBPO!iDE::i.) I SYDNEY, ot'd December. The danger of decreasing production, «and the menace in tins' direction by tlie reduction of working hours to 44 por week was the warning given, \o unions in the judgment-of tho Corn—on-vyeaH'n Arbitration Court ia regard to a c«o brought by a number of unions agaiii~» tho Pastoralists Federation and other respondents, applying for the application of the 44 hours week. The judgment of the Court was summed up as follows: —"We are not satisfied that any of. the redactions in the standard hours of work asked for should be imposed upon employers' at the present, timo." The president (Mr. Justice Powers) Ldealt with reports from various pans jof tho world, as to trade conditions and wages. He said that hours had increased I since, November, 1920, and wages, had I been reduced elsewhere to^ an alarming I extent, considering the higher rates paid here. It was useless, he said, for union leaders to -assert that ail this was beiijg caused by a conspiracy of capitalists. In September, wages- were at their highest peak throughout the world. Since that time, rates of wages had dropped in all countries, and the hours of lac-oiir had increased, except in Australia. His Honour quoted figures to show that I Australian manufacturers had to compete jon shorter hours and 1920 wages, wifh marmfaoturers elsewhere who could s«il theii goods at nearly half the price they did in tho previous September. Conditions in Australia had materially altered, and many /of the largest steel works aad mining plants nad, closed down because, of the low prices -or metals. In September, 1920, the percentage of unemployed in the Commonwealth was slightly over six, and in September of this year, it was over eleven. Considering all things, the Court was not justified in adding to tho abnormal employment by reducing - the standard hours. Every industry, in Australia waa less prosperous than it was in 1920,-aud employers and employees would have to do their beat to prevent widespread : unemployment. „ His Honour said he did not see now Australia opuld continue so successfully to compeie'with other countries unless the men generally worked thoir best, and produced at least, as muoh per man as they did in 1913. The quickest way to shorten hours for all workers was for e_ch worker to do his best in working liou'rt without working unreasonably hard, and for tho union loaders to allow that to be done, and to allow -_ piece-work under proper safeguards, as in England and U.S.A. Any other course mast result in keeping workers all their lives.on. a, fixed wage,' and keep Workers 'on a, dead level. , -.-.'*