SHOP HOURS.

Evening Star, Issue 22462, 6 October 1936, Page 13

SHOP HOURS.

*0 TIS BDITOE. Sii',—Shorter Hours ” hits the nail on the head when pointing out the untairness in allowing double shops the latitude they enjoy at the expense of those who endeavour to keep their assistants in employment. These people who are allowed so much freedom are of the class who respect no law—in tact, they laugh at it, because the breaking of it costs so little in the shape of fines, and it pays them to carry on. This is a serious condition of things from the viewpoint of the assistants generally, and if allowed to contmue will force many storekeepers to dispense with their bauds and run their businesses themselves. The majority of grocers are fair-minded and anxious to play their part and work the shorter hours and pay the higher rates of pay, but conditions must be fair. The Hon. Minister of Labour takes exception to tradesmen taking on jobs on the Saturday after doing their 40 hours, and intends taking action to prevent this, and rightly so, but what about the who close at the schedule time, allowing both master and man to rest and relax from the routine and rush of the week? They find that their trade and occupation is being carried on long after the prescribed hours by these numerous double shops, who, by the way, are not wholly to blame, because they are only the product of a loose and easy administration; but it gives them the whip hand over the adherents of the 44-hour week, and that is not right. _ Is this not a case for consideration ? The majority of these after-hour grocery shops do not pay wages, employ no travellers, run’no motor delivery, and in no way help to solve the unemployment problem. J only hqie and trust that the Grocers' Assistants’ Union and the Master Grocers’ Association will use every endeavour to see laws embodied in the forthcoming agreement to bring ijito line every shop handling groceries and tobacco, and let ns be finished with the “ rafferty rules ” now existing.—l am, etc., No Favour. October 5.