LOW OUTPUT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23284, 1 March 1939, Page 13

LOW OUTPUT

DOMINION WOBKEES ft FAOTORY EXPERIENCE AUSTRALIAN COMPARISON Opinions thai? the development of manufacturing industries was hampered by a lower output per worker per hour than applied in other manufacturing countries were expressed yesterday by manufacturers, who said the situation had not escaped the attention of the Government, which was believed to be concerned at tlio problem. It was stated that in some industries statistics had been compiled showing an actual drop of hourly output a man of from 10 to 15 per cent in recent years. It was not considered that this was a result of any conscious policy. The proper functioning of industry, it was stated, depended on the reduction of manufacturing costs to a minimum, in order to keep prices on the lowest possible basis, and the view was held that in the particular stage industry had now reached a speeding up by workers was essential if proper progress was to be attained.

Lack of Experience " The New Zealand worker is not lazy, but the average output per man is well below the Australian," said a manufacturer with Australian experience. "Australia has been manufacturing extensively for 25 to 30 years, and the present generation of workers there has experience and tradition behind it. When a son goes to a factory he perhaps follows the occupation of his father and, from talk in the home, ho has absorbed an atmosphere. Few New Zealanders start with that advantage. "Executives are in a similar position. Many New Zealand foremen would fail to retain their employment in an Australian factory, because they could not produce the output demanded of them. New Zealanders are quick to learn, but the}' need to be shown, and an executive who on occasion can take off hi.° coat and show exactly the way a job can be done will soon get results." Quick Women Workers

Several manufacturers with experience in employing both sexes considered that the average young woman worked better than did the average youth. "For some reason many of the girls I employ seem better educated and certainly more intelligent than the young men," said one man. "We can get more sustained speed, certainly in tlie more mechanical tasks, from girls than we can with men generally, although when we get a good male worker he is superior to a good woman worker." While manufacturers agreed that factory records of production, notwithstanding modern machinery, did not always measure up to statistics issued in overseas manufacturing countries, there were differences of opinion on the question whether there had been an actual slackening in recent years. " The number of strikes and stopwork meetings, often from causes comparatively trivial, shows that some sections of workers do not realise yet that the employers' interests are also their own," said a factory owner. "When New Zealand workers are more industrially minded, this phase is bound to disappear. There will then be speeding up, because the worker will understand that his employer is in competition with others, and the greater the output per hour the greater will be the benefit to employees."