SHORTER HOURS AND COSTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22405, 29 April 1936, Page 12

SHORTER HOURS AND COSTS

While advocating the principle of the 40-hour week during his speech on the second reading of the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Amendment Bill, the Minister of Labour quoted two Christchurch instances of its application. In one, he said, the 'Christchurch tramways had introduced the 40-hour week for most employees in the workshops, and it was the intention to apply it generally as soon as possible. The Tramways Board is some distance away from establishing these hours for the entire staff. A new agreement has just been signed giving the men of the traffic branch an 88-hour fortnight, in place of a 96-hour fortnight. In effect, these men have just attained the 44-hour week—and the cost of the concession is estimated at £5134 a year. The meeting of the Tramways Board which approved this agreement also considered the accounts for the previous year, showing a deficiency of £14,704. This was £8739 more than the deficit of the year before, though some 500,000 more passengers had been carried. The natural consequence of these figures is that the board has to collect a rate, stated by the chairman to be 12s on a property worth £IOOO. A member of the board suggested that fares would have to be increased, implying that the existing rates were not economic. No attempt was made, apparently, to link up the financial situation revealed, the reduction of hours to the traffic staff, and the existence of a 40-hour week, as quoted by the Minister, in the workshops. Yet the whole of the facts are illuminating. However much there may be in favour of the principle of a shorter working week, the price has to be paid. In the Christchurch Tramway Board's area, property owners, and possibly the travelling public, will be called upon to fool the bill.