FORTY-HOUR WEEK

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23861, 11 January 1941, Page 12

FORTY-HOUR WEEK

| Sir, —As a carpenter, may I ho perI mitted to reply as hriell.v as possible to , Mr. R. .1, Peter, executive, Auckland i Branch of the Amalgamated Society of j Carpenters and -joiners in his plea for ! the retention of the 10-hour week. He ; advances three points in support: First, that middle-aged men of to-day find the shorter week a sufficient tax on their stamina. Second, that work is now more arduous than formerly, owing to the use of machinery, and altered methods and conditions; and third, that actually more work is performed per unit under the short, week than under the longer. Taking these contentions in their order 1 contend that at middle-age a man should be at the very peak of his efficiency and endurance, and if there is, as he suggests, a general decadence he would do well to consider how far the easier modern conditions have been a cause and not a remedy, and to what, extent it may he due to the lack of the will or the opportunity to rival the porlormanee of the craftsmen of tho past. His second contention, that the introduction of machinery and new conditions have made the tradesman's work more arduous, can hardly he taken seriously. Some of us old men can still remember when we began work with the standing tree, felling, pit-sawing and performing by hand every operation right to tho finished article. Those were the days when we worked. Today labour-saving machines do all tho bard work, preparing the materials, and tho tradesman's part is confined mostly to set ting-out, fitting and putting together what tho machines have prepared. The tradesman used to have to walk to and from his work in his own time, carrying a heavy kit of tools (most of the heaviest are now obsolete): now be is conveyed at the employer'* expense; he works under improved conditions; gets morning and afternoon toa and two days in the week to either recuperate or to unfit himself for the week's work. His last and third claim that under the shorter weak production per unit has increased is otFoetoallv answered bv Mr. Pet or himself in his second letter where he points out that on the occasion of the urgent need of accommodation for our soldiers our workers gave up their short week and the results were "remarkable" and he also tells us that to extend working hours "may prove embarrassing in producing flurpiuses we cannot dispose of." Tons Viribot.