BAKERS' HOURS.

Evening Star, Issue 10393, 14 August 1897, Page 2 (Supplement)

BAKERS' HOURS.

TO THE EDITOH. Hm,~ l was rather surprised on roadin<* "Journeyman Baker's " letter in Thursday night's issue, for he has evidently misread or misunderstood my letter which appeared in Wednesday's paper. I did not refer to the present hour of commencing work, as the employers commence work now at the hour suitable for their trade, and consequently the customers receive their bread in good time, and do not complain of any delay. But if the employers were tied to 4 a.m. there is a different story to tell (as the writer is well in a position to prove), and the customers do complain. "Journeyman Baker" requires no proof of this, as he should well remember that a former union of the bakers was compelled to dissolve on account of some of the employers requiring to commence work earlier than the stipulated hour, on account of it interfering with their business, and as the journeymen bakers knew this they justly stood by their employers. To commence work at -1 a.m. may suit all the master bakers on three or even four days in a week, but on account of the vanmen having a half-holiday on Wednesday, and the extra bread baked on Saturday, an employer is compelled to have the. bakers earlier at work than usual on these days; and the same refers to a day preceding a holiday. By attempting to make a fixed hour for commencing work the journeyman baker will compel the vanmen who de' liver the bread on many occasions to work very long hours on account of their receiving the bread, later than usual ; but such is the

selfishness of' the journeymen bakefs thai they Care not how Ibng the vanmeii work provided they have their eight hour&per day and paid for all time. Perhats "'JourneyjHan ttaftefr" hSs hot thbuglit cl thin; and as no seems to be possessed of a philanthropic mind will no doubt try and assist hia fellow worker by commencing work at an earlier hour on soma days in the week, even if ho has no desire to treat his employer in a similar nnnner.

Seeing that there are so many journeymen bakers who are agreeable to start work at the hour mo3t suitable fer their femployetas proved at the last meeting oi their union, when the hour of 'eorhrhenciilir \fptk was under discussion—l B tij.l hold tliat thin nattfcr should be left to the employers ; and if the journeyman bakers get reasonable hours of labor why should there be any objection —I am, etc., Interested. Dunedin, August 7.