FORTY HOUR WEEK

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 August 1936, Page 2

FORTY HOUR WEEK

GOLD MINING EMPLOYEES.

[PER PRESS ASSOCIATION.]

WELLINGTON, August 10. The Arbitration Court to-day heard applications by workers to amend the Martha, Golden Dawn, and other gold miners’ industrial agreements to provide for the 40-hour working week.

Decision was reserved. The application was opposed on behalf of the employers by R. G. Milligan, Auckland Local Director of the Martha Gold Mining Company, Ltd.; W’. H. Hopkins, Waihi Superintendent of the same company; and W. H. Wynyard, secretary of the Golden Dawn Gold Mining Company, Ltd. Representing the workers were J. Roberts and J. Read, who appeared for the South Auckland engine drivers.

Mr Milligan said the Martha mine employed more than 600 men. The average working week was 44 hours. Tho 40-hour "week was not feasible for his company, because of practical obstacles and economic difficulties. It was essential to put through the present tonnage, while there was the prospect of an increase in working cost per ton.

Mr Roberts said the workers asked for a 40-hour, five-day' week for all workers, except those employed in wet, hot or gassy places in the mines, for whom a 30-hour week was asked. Tho largest mine in Australia had worked the 35-hour week for a number of years, and New Zealand coal miners had enjoyed the 40-hour week for years past. Mining was one of tho most unhealthy occupations. The best means of preventing miners’ complaint was rest periods out of the mine. Dealing with the ability of companies to bear the added costs of the 40-hour week, Mr Roberts said that the Martha Gold Mining Company, in particular, was the most prosperous in the world'. HOTEL WORKERS. Tho Federated Hotel and Restaurant Workers’ Industrial Association of Workers applied for a reduction of hours from 44 to 40 a week.

The application was opposed by the employers, on whose behalf AV. T. Mountjoy pointed out the employers had agreed to reduce hours to 44 from June 15, and pay 1931 wages. The Government desired hotels of standard for tho tourist trade, and if that were to be done, the industry should not be unduly restricted. Decision was reserved.

WATERSIDERS.

WELLINGTON, August 11.

By an Arbitration Court majority judgment to-day, watersiders will work a 44-hours week, fl’he Court held that the average hours were much below 40, and the alteration would not lead to more employment, but merely to more payment for the same work.

Mr Monteith, dissenting, appended a memorandum in which he states the Court was bound to insert 40 hours as a maximum week, if it is practical to carry on an industry effectively, and ho is of opinion that the employers did not prove it was impracticable to carry on if the ordinary hours were reduced to 40.

WORKERS’ APPRECIATION.

WELLINGTON, August 11.

Before a special sitting of the Arbitration Court for consideration of applications for and against the 40-hour week, was adjourned to-day, Mr J. Read, President of the Trades and Labour Council, and Mr L. Glover, President of the Alliance of Labour, expressed the appreciation of the workers for the way iji which their claims had been considered by the Court.

Mr Read said the workers appreciated the fact that the Court had been set a tremendous task, probably the greatest it ever had. The -work had been conducted in an exemplary manner, and the members had worked long hours. The Labour movement appreciated the way in which the members of the Court worked to dispose of the cases in the limited time available.

Mr Justice Page thanked the speakers for the appreciative remarks, and said the Court was indebted to advocates on both sides for the way they presented the cases. There were still a number of judgments to be presented but the Court worked to a schedule, and hoped to get all of the judgments out in a week or two, certainly before September 1. The Court leaves for Auckland this evening, and will make fixtures there to-morrow.