GAS SUPPLIERS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22493, 10 August 1936, Page 11

GAS SUPPLIERS

VARIATION IN HOURS REQUIREMENTS OF INDUSTRY The difficulties confronting the gas industry were reviewed by the Arbitration Court in giving the judgment published on Saturday on applications to amend the "Wellington and Canterbury gasworks employees' agreements to provide for a 40-hour week. Applications for relief were also filed by 47 gas companies or local bodies, but the Court had been informed that 22 of these, operating small plants, were moving to ho excluded from the limits of hours fixed by the Factories Act, and their applications had been adjourned. Gas companies throughout New Zealand were encountering strong competition from electrical supply authorities, the judgment stated. The manufacture of gas was in general a continuous process for 24 hours a day throughout tho year. The employers asked for a 44-hour week for certain workers only. It was clear that for men. including drivers, engaged in receiving, trimming, bunkering or handling coal and ashes, and complaints men, work on Saturdays was essential. The works must he kept open on Saturdays and bunkers must hi l filled to enable work in tho retort house to proceed in the week-end. drivers and yardsmen must be ready to receive coal arriving by steamers and complaints men must be available on Saturdavs, as on others days, in the public interest. An extension to 44 hours would bo granted in these cases. , , Reviewing the duties of sriirriiK.il the Court stated that although their work was in a sense intermittent, in that after retorts were charged and drawn each hour there was an interval before they were recharged, the work was hot and laborious. Meals were taken during the shift, no deduction of working time being made. This was, it was thought, the practice followed in most industries where sliifU wore worked. The employers suggested that, shiftmen work eight hours on each of six ilavs» unci that mealtime of 40 minutes be deducted, leaving a net weekly working time of 44 hours. , Though the reduction from ■% hours or 48 hours, according to the works, must entail additional cost, it had not lioen shown to he impracticable to carry nil the industry efficiently on a 40-hour week for shiftmen, or for maintenance men and other workers, provided Saturday work was permitted, and orders would be made accordingly.