FIVE-DAY WEEK

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22544, 8 October 1936, Page 10

FIVE-DAY WEEK

NO SATURDAY BUYING REPORTED UNION MOVE ORIGIN IN AUCKLAND EFFORT TO DISCIPLINE SHOPS 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 j s 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 40-hour'week could properly be recognised, the men were obliged to work on Saturdays 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 the 40-hour week, and they see in the proposal to discipline the shops an opportunity of levelling differences between working conditions among unionists.

The proposal, apparently, is to circularise every unionist in Auckland, 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 bo, 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.