FORTY-FOUR-HOUR WEEK

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22999, 30 September 1936, Page 14

FORTY-FOUR-HOUR WEEK

PALMERSTON NORTH HOSPITAL BIG INCREASE IN STAFF (Per United Press Association) PALMERSTON N.. Sept. 29; The Palmerston North Hospital Board has decided that a 44-hour week will be introduced into the board’s institutions at as early a date as possible. To bring this about it is necessary for a large increase in the staff, but the board feels that its employees should be given as near as practicable similar conditions in regard to hours as the employees in other sections of the community. The introduction of such a reform, of course, will proceed only over a period, 'As regards the nursing and domestic staffs, especially at the Palmerston North Hospital, extra accommodation will have to be provided for the resident staff, and until substantial additions to the nurses’ home, which the board has already decided upon, are completed it will not be possible to ensure that the nursing staff’s hours will be reduced to 44. It is proposed immediately to take steps to appoint 16 additional nurses to the staff at the hospital. Apart from the Palmerston North Hospital additions to the staff are necessary at the other institutions under the control of the board and include all branches. Where it is not practicable to reduce the hours, more particularly for the staff employed on the board’s farms and the ambulance drivers, the annual leave period will be increased as a recompense for the logger hours worked. The immediate cost will, be in the vicinity of £SOOO per annum for wages, and in addition to this a further capital expenditure will be necessary.