FORTY-HOUR WEEK

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22448, 18 June 1936, Page 14

FORTY-HOUR WEEK

SITTING OF COURT APPEALS FOR EXEMPTION MANY APPLICATIONS REQUIREMENTS OF INDUSTRY [BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION] "WELLINGTON, Wednesday Industry is taking a great deal of interest in the special sitting of the Court of Arbitration to be held in Wellington on Monday, to consider applications for exemption from the 40hour week in factories, or for temporary extension of the hours to 44, when the legislation comes into force on September 1. A very large number of applications is being prepared throughout New Zealand by employers' organisations, which are busy grouping them for presentation to the Court. The secretary of the New Zealand Employers' Federation, Mr. T. 0. Bishop, stated to-day that the applications would fall into three groups, as follows: — Those industries in which proceedings in connection with new awards havo already been taken, in which cases the employers will apply to the Court for interim oiders maintaining the 44-hour week until such time as new awards are made, either by negotiation or by tlx*' Court itself. Those industries in which the employers concerned desire a little longer time to adapt their processes to a shorter working week, but who are prepared to adopt a 40-hour week in, say, six months. In these cases the applications will be for short-term orders, probably until the end of the present year. Those industries in which, because of the impossibility of performing the work in 40 hours, a permanent extension of hours will be asked for. In this group come such industries as gasworks, cement works and others in which continuous processes are carried on for 24 hours in every day of the year. ATTITUDE OF COURT GROUNDS FOR EXEMPTION [BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION"] WELLINGTON, Wednesday An outline of the attitude which manufacturers consider the Court of Arbitration is likely to adopt toward applications for ■exemption from the 40 hour week was given by the secretary of the New Zealand Manufacturers' Federation, Mr.' A. E. Mander, to-day. He said he and Mr. A. W. Nisbet, secretary of the Wellington Manufacturers' Association, had given considerable attention to the Government's industrial legislation, and had again interviewed the Minister of Labour,. the Hon. H. T. Armstrong. As a result they had formed a very strong impression that the Government did not intend that the Court should grant exemptions from the application of the 40 hour week except in very exceptional cases. The mere fact that costs would be increased would almost certainly not be considered, of itself, sufficient ground for exemption. The three strongest grounds on whicli applications for exemption could be based were, in their opinion, as follows:—A technical impossibility of carrying out a process in 40 hours; a severe shortage of skilled labour in industry, which might be accepted as a ground for temporary exemption; and a booking of orders for the coming season at old prices, in which, cases firms might ask the Court for exemption until such time as their contracts were completed. Mr. Mander said Mr. Nisbet would make a large number of applications on behalf of manufacturers.