MORE LEISURE

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 35, 11 February 1936, Page 10

MORE LEISURE

INDUSTRIAL WORKERS

"N.Z. WILL PLAY ITS PART"

A WORLD PROBLEM

In the course of an address at the Rotary Club luncheon today Mr. T. O. Bishop, secretary of j,hc New Zealand Employers' Federation, said that when the rest of the world, particularly the more important industrial countries, was prepared to adopt measures of reform which would mean increased leisure, New Zealand would be prepared to play' its part. He remarked that he would not like it to be thought that the attitude of the employers' delegates at the last Geneva Conference (at which conference he was a delegate), was one of active hostility to a reduction of hours as a general principle. "It was because the employers' delegates were greatly concerned at the difficulties which would be imposed upon them, mainly in their export markets, by the increased costs attendant upon a reduction of hours that they have steadily opposed the adoption of a general convention at successive conferences," said Mr. Bishop. "REDUCED HOURS WILL COME." "It must be realised that the British employers' delegates have a further reason for viewing reduction of hours as applied in their own country, and the increasing costs arising out of such reduction, with considerable misgiving. "The conditions of employment in Great Britain and in the British Dominions are so far in advance of those pertaining in competing countries that British employers, and British Government delegates, also, feel that these countries must advance more nearly to the British standards before British standards are further improved. "As a result of the discussions at the Conference, I came to the conclusion that while a reduction of hours will undoubtedly come about, it will not come as a direct result of the adoption of an international convention. It will come about industry by industry as a result of direct. negotiations between workers and employers. This process has already begun in England, and advance will probably be more rapid in the next few years than it has been in the past. "In New Zealand I think a similar method of gradually bringing about the reduction of working hours is the only practical one we can apply. We have here a highly-developed legal system of collective bargaining, the terms and conditions of employment in all industries are frequently reviewed, and when the various awards and agreements governing each industry are under review is the time when revised working hours should be considered in the light of the circumstances affecting each industry. "The Government's intention of restoring compulsory arbitration has also been definitely announced and this provides independent machinery for consideration of the hours question along with other conditions of employment. "SHORTEN THE WORKING LIFE." "On the general question of the application of the 40-hour week as a means of reducing unemployment, I personally am convinced that the beneficial effect would be comparatively slight, and at best temporary, because the artificial stimulation of mechanisation would counteract it. The only effective method of using shorter workins time to relieve unemployment is to shorten the working life. "A retiring age could be actuarially calculated periodically so as to withdraw from industry a sufficient number of older workers to make room for the entry of the next generation. This would involve a scheme of pensions which could be made contributory, but that should not be an insoluble problem. It would certainly be better to pay pensions to old people than doles to young people, and' I believe that a small country like ours is better able to make such an experiment than one in which the population is greater and in which what I may call the stratification of society ;s more strongly marked. We have overcome many apparent impossibilities in recent years and it would probably be found on investigation that a general contributory pensions scheme on insurance principles is no more impossible than some of these.