FIVE-DAY WEEK

Grey River Argus, 31 January 1946, Page 6

FIVE-DAY WEEK

SHOP ASSISTANTS’ HEALTH WELLINGTON, January 29. His conviction that the immediate result of Saturday morning closing would be improved health among shop assistant was expressed to “The Standard” by their union secretary, Mr. A. W. Croskery. Apart from Hobart, where the fiveday week had been in operation for nearly nine years, there was quite a number of New Zealand towns in which some trades had been observing it for a considerable time. In Hamilton, butchers had had it for seven years,' and in Otorohanga for almost as long. It had been observed by the butchers in- Rotorua and Te Kuiti for five years, in Whang.vrei for three years, and in Thames since the beginning of April la.it year. “A wonderful reform,” he said, “and I don’t mean for the employees only. The employers are loving it already. They’re wondering nowwhy they didn’t bring, in Saturdaymorning closing years ago.” Mr. Croskery said he wished that every member of his union could know how much was owed to the prime Minister, Mr. Fraser, for bringing the measure into being. A deputation from the Shop Assistants’ Federation had approached Mr. Fraser and had pointed out to him the position concerning the fortyhour week and the five-day week in retail shops in New Zealand and elsewhere. As soon as this evidence was placed before him, Mr. Fraser had agreed he could see no reason why shop assistants like other classes of workers, should not enjoy a forty-hour week. « But for Mr. Fraser,” said Mr. Croskery, “we should still have been •aictline for the amendment to the Shops and Offices Act.” The amend-

ment became law early last December.

To support his contention that the forty-hour week would result in improved health among shop assistants, Mr. Croskery referred to a file of correspondence between himself and Hobart shopkeepers. The letters written to Mr. Croskery are all dated 1939, after the five-day week had been in operation for over a year in Hobart, and they speak without exception in glowing terms of the Saturday morning closing arrangement. A striking point is that not one of them fails to mention the health aspect of it. It is worth while quoting some of them.

“We find that our assistants have been in better health and come back on the Monday morning with renewed energy to carry on for the week. As far as general sickness is concerned this has been cut down to a minimum.”

After stating that absences had been appreciably decreased during the twelve months since the five-day week had been instituted, as a result of better health, the director of a Hobart department stores goes on to says, “You may be interested also to know that our staff has been veryloyal to us in the matter of arriving for business at the correct time, and the time lost through this has been more than cut in half.”

A Hobart jeweller writes “Statistics will prove that the same volume of business can be done in the shorter time, thus allowing what every man and woman mostly desires, i.e., more opportunity to enjoy nature’s gift, fresh air.”

In 1939, Mr. Croskery made extensive inquiries in Hobart about the reaction of business men to the short week and about its effect on business. It was practically a unanimous opinion that to go back to Saturday morning opening would be a retrograde step.

Consumers were happy about it as well as shopkeepers find employees and business had, as a matter of fact, been increased. One statement in Mr. Croskery’s possession refers to increased sales of sportswear and a “very large” increase in the sale to home and hobby enthusiasts of plants, cement, timber and garden tools.