FACTORY HOLIDAYS

Evening Post, Volume cxxiv, Issue 148, 20 December 1937, Page 12

FACTORY HOLIDAYS

CHRISTMAS CLOSING

MINISTER'S COMMENT

EMPLOYERS' REPLY

"The comment of the Minister of .abour (the Hon. H. T. Armstrong) upon the action of certain factory employers in closing down their premises for the Christmas holidays and dispensing with the services of their employees is by no means to be taken as "of general application to the factory employers of New Zealand, and I think it regrettable that such comment should be published in general terms and- by inference should reflect upon all employers," stated Mr. T. O. Bishop, secretary of the New Zealand Employers' Federation, today.

"It should be understood," said Mr. Bishop, "that the legislation passed by he present Government since the commencement of 1936 .has caused the majority of New Zealand employers a :jreat deal of inconvenience, extra cost, tnd disorganisation of business. These conditions have been met on the whole very cheerfully and.in the best possible spirit. '•

"Individual employers and employers' organisations have endeavoured to cooperate with the Government and with trade unions, so as to carry on their industries with an absolute minimum amount of friction and to promote that further harmonious co-operation which the' Prime Minister has so frequently •appealed for. '

"I know of many cases in regard to tioliday pay in which employers are jiving their workers more than the law requires, and I believe this applies 'o the great majority of cases. If there ire cases in which employers are behaving improperly, no doubt the legal remedies.will be applied in due course, but I do deprecate the Minister's comment being made in such general terms, arid I should like to remove from the public mind the impression which might have been created."