40-HOUR WEEK

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 145, 20 June 1936, Page 9

40-HOUR WEEK

IRON & STEEL INDUSTRY ■ PRELIMINARY APPROVAL I i.1.0. ('()\fi:im;\<'{: vote United I'rcss Association—By Klocirli: Telegraph—Copyright. •.Received June 20, 11.50 a.m.) GENEVA, June 19. The Internation;il Labour Conference, in a preliminary vote, adopted by ■ 67 votes to 36, the proposed convention : for a 40-hour week in the iron and ■ steel industry, but the figures suggest : that the necessary two-thirds majority i is not likely to be obtained in the vote for the final decision. The conference decided by 59 votes to 26 to hold a conference of Government delegates and representatives of employers and workers regarding a reduction. of hours for textile workers before the 1937 1.L.0. conference. It was also'decided, by 71 votes to 29, that the subject of a 40-hour week in the textile industry be placed on the agenda at the 1937 conference. Last year the International Labour Conference at Geneva approved in principle the 40-hour week. The vote was 79 to 26, and it was decided to set up a 40-hour week committee to consider the text of a convention. The decision was made with the qualification that there must be no reduction in the standard of living of the workers. The attitude of several Governments towards the shorter week, however, has not been encouraging. The British Government was not interested; the Italian Government considered that any action should include the big European industrial countries and those outside Europe, at the least; and the Japanese were not prepared to collaborate. The industries suggested as the first to be subjected to the trial of a 40-hour week were listed by the 1935 conference as public works undertaken or subsidised by Governments, iron and steel, building and contracting, glass bottle manufacturing, and coal mining. On June 13 it was reported that the International Labour Conference textile committee had adopted a resolution proposing discussion of the suggested draft convention for a 40-hour week in the textile industry with a view to its adoption by a full conference in 1936. After this : Mr. Ashurst, British employers' dele- ■ gate, announced that the employers' group, with the exception of the 1 American delegate, would not further 'participate in the discussions. j - - I