SHORTER WORKING HOURS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18420, 5 December 1921, Page 6

SHORTER WORKING HOURS

AUSTRALIAN UNIONS’ APPLICATION. REFUSED BY ARBITRATION COURT. ; Pr*ai JUeociatioa—By Telegraph— Copyright MELBOURNE, December 4. (Received Dec. 4, at 5.5 p.m.) The Commonwealth Arbitration Court has--delivered its decision in connection with an application by a number of unions, including the gas employees, the Australian Workers’ Union, and the Federated Engine-drivers and Firemen’s Association, for shorter working hours. The president, in announcing the court’s refusal of the applications, said the court would not be justified in adding to the abnormal unemployment bv reducing the standard working hours. A reduction of the hours from 48 to 44 generally in Australia at the present time would be a serious blow to the industries generally, and particularly to the workers. It would be impossible for Australia, working 44 hours, to compete with England, Canada, and the Continent, where wages were lower, hours Tonger, and the workers anxious to accept piecework. If there was ever a time when Australian standard hours should, in the interests of the employees and the general public, not be reduced, excepting in special cases, it was the present. The president pointed out that the judgment did not prevent employers and employees from contracting in regard to the number of hours to be worked so as to prevent an industry stopping, and it did not apply to special; cases. !