FIVE-DAY WEEK

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 8 October 1936, Page 7

FIVE-DAY WEEK

SATURDAY MORNING TRADE MOVEMENT AT AUCKLAND (By Telegraph—Press Association) AUCKLAND, 7th October. In an effort to institute a universal five-day week in New Zealand, a reported proposal, originating in Auckland and intended to spread throughout the Dominion, has as its main object a refusal to patronise shops on Saturday mornings. Union secretaries in the city, it is stated, intend to prepare circulars for distribution among their members calling upon them to see that their household shopping is done on Fridays. There is said to have been a preliminary discussion already among union secretaries. The suggestion is that the move is the outcome of recent complaints that in certain industries where the 40hour week could properly be recognised, men were obliged to work on Saturday when there was no obvious necessity for it. It is suggested also that certain unions are aggrieved that they have not received the benefit of an Arbitration Court award granting them a 40-hour week, and they see in the proposal to discipline the shops an opportunity of levelling the differences between the working conditions among unionists.

The proposal apparently is to circularise every unionist in Auckland, and then to organise a mass meeting of workers to affirm the policy. Meanwhile the Trades and Labour Council and the Alliance of Labour are to be advised and their support solicited. Every union in the country is to be kept posted on the subject, and with the backing of the council and the alliance, Auckland unionists are sanguine of carrying their purpose into effect.