POSITION IN BRITAIN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20419, 22 November 1929, Page 13

POSITION IN BRITAIN.

GOVERNMENT'S PROPOSALS.

MOST OF UNIONS ACCEPT. LONDON. Nov. 20. The national delegate conference of the Miners' Federation to-day accepted this Government's proposals for the rehabilitation of the coalmining industry. Only the Yorkshire and Forest of Dean delegates the negative. In preparation for the promised legislation " dealing with hours of work and other factors in the coal industry " membors of the British Government have at intervals met representatives of the colliery owners and of the Miners' Federation. The Government's bill proposes to change the law as to hours of work by reducing the day's shift to seven and ahalf hours, and it will provide for the enforcement of marketing schemes —district and national—such as those which the colliery owners are now adopting. Underlying the proposals the. Government put forward will be the conviction that better days are in store for the coalmining industry, and that, while some present improvement of working conditions may be made, a substantial betterment of the miners' economic position must depend upon an improvement of the industry's economic position. Fresh investigations were recently made into the length not only of the working day but also of the working week in the coalfields of Europe. The British Labour interpretation of the Washington Eight Hours Convention is that it definitely permits of a normal 48-hour week worked in not more than six days. Judged by this standard the average length of the working week for coalminers in Britain is below the requirement of the convention. In Germany the average is rather-more than 48 hours a week; in Belgium it is 48 hours ; in Franco it is 46.42 hours; find in Britain 47.28 hours. In Poland, also, the working week appreciably exceeds 48 hours. A comparison Of the weekly hours of work is. therefore, generally in favour of Britain, although tho daily shift is generally longer.