ALLEGATIONS OF SWEATING

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 104, 30 October 1933, Page 8

ALLEGATIONS OF SWEATING

A charge that "the destruction of the labour laws had resulted in sweated labour in the factories" was made l>y Mr. P. Fraser in the House of Representatives last week. Mr. Fraser was asked by the Minister of Finance to name a factory, and he said that instances of sweating in Wellington garment factories had been brought under his notice. Mr. Coates asked; "Why was it not reported to the. Labour Department in Wellington?" and Mr. Fraser said (that the Labour Department might have been deceived in the matter. He called for an investigation into New Zealand factory conditions. In a statement on Saturday the president of the Wellington Manufacturers' Association said that Wellington manufacturers would welcome an investigation, and that information could be secured by Government officials who have the right to inspect wages books and interrogate individual workers. This is undoubtedly the way in which an investigation should be conducted. Mr. Fraser spoke of the "destruction of the labour laws," but the Factories Act and the Shops and Offices Act are still on the Statute Book. The Labour Department has inspectors whose duty it is to investigate all complaints and see that the law is observed. Unless complaints are being made for political purposes it is the duty of those who are aware of abuses to take the direct way—the way provided under the law—to remove them.

The Labour Department exists to deal with such complaints, and it has the right to expect the co-operation of all who wish to see the laws observed. If the Department is failing to do its duty, when those who could help it have done so, it will be time to call for an investigation; but Mr. Fraser did not make an allegation of such failure. Unfortunately the heat of politics is tending to a confused sense of public duty. The discrediting of the Government seems to be viewed as an end in itself rather than the main purpose being the correction of abuses. Labour's debating powers are powerfully used in this way, and the slackness of the Government party in meeting this form of attack encourages it. The Government does not approve breaches of the law; but it is not sufficient that it should sit silent when the attack is made. An Opposition which says that the law is being broken should' be answered, and required to' explain' its own failure to afford assistance in assuring complete observance of the statute^ ;