INDUSTRIAL WORLD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23678, 9 December 1938, Page 3

INDUSTRIAL WORLD

NEWS AND NOTES By J. T. Paul Ideologies there have always been and countless generations of mankind have fought and died for them. They drift like clouds above the children of men, now lighted by the rainbow of hope, now riven by the lightnings of hate. But for ever they pass, and if at this juncture statesmanship and good willing were potent to speed certain shadows no more fitting moment can be imagined.—Mr Eden Philpotts in a letter to The Times (London). SENSIBLE MOONSHINE There are always two ways of solving a surfeited market, says the "Man in the Moon," writing in the Christian Science Monitor on so-called over-pro-duction. One is the fearful way of restriction of goods. The other is finding new sources to supply If your world were under one human government, you might successfully legislate restriction of production or rather curtailment of the amount of acreage to be engaged in raising a certain product. As it is, however, a decreased American crop is temptation for a greater production elsewhere, and giving away foreign markets is not a road to farming prosperity in these days.

Except as a temporary measure to relieve fear and local markets, therefore, the restriction of goods as an economic solution must come through intelligent regard of the requirements of supply—the regulation that you people have termed the law of demand and supply.

To foster wise farming, government can well provide crop and market information and finance storage for the lean years of unfavourable weather. But the greatest deficiency of vision in lands now bewailing over-production is the failure to appreciate the natural law of supply on your planetary home. Your planet has a surface woven of various soils, climes, cultures, and opportunities. If a section is walled or torn away from this covering, there occurs a maladjustment that affects the welfare of all your peoples adversely. You folks of earth should think in planetary terms instead of those of selfish nationalism. INDUSTRIAL WORKERS' REGISTRATION The Iraq Cabinet has approved draft regulations submitted by the Minister of the Interior, governing the system of registration of industrial workers under section 12 of the Labour Act of April 25, 1936. which lays down that any worker claiming compensation for an accident must have been registered before the accident in the manner perscribedby law. The regulations provide that the worker may apply for registration to an official of the Ministry of the Interior, or in the absence of such official, to any other high official in the locality where he is employed. The entry in the register must include the name, identity, age, domicile, nature of employment, amount of wage, and state of health of the worker concerned. AGE AND EMPLOYMENT Weighing arguments that have been advanced for. and against, the employment of older workers, a preliminary report on "Discrimination Against Elderly Workers," which was submitted to the governing body of the International Labour Office when it met in London this month, finds that "in general, a hiring policy applying age as a decisive criterion appears to be unjustified." "The essence of the matter," declares the report, " seems to be that the older worker is preferable on the very important condition that he has retained sufficient physical ability for his job, to the performance of which he can bring experience and reliability. He may be particularly valuable where quality, rather than quantity, is required. Preference, on the contrary, will be given to the younger worker when physical strength, rapidity of work, and adaptation to new methods are called for." Hence it concludes that "a rational hiring policy would consist in classifying jobs accordinr to the capacity of the individual." Prepared by the International Labour Office at the request of Government, employers and workers' representatives on the governing body, the report finds reason to believe that older workers are no more likely to lose their jobs than younger ones; but that once having lost his job it is more difficult for an older worker to find fresh employment.

"A certain amount of deterioration in skill," it explains, "is necessarilv involved in long spells of unemployment, which becomes a definite handicap in obtaining fresh employment, especially in the case of skilled workers." And it suggests that the present disproportion of unemployment among' older workers " is probably due in part to the fact that, when recovery came, the younger workers generally, who were able to adjust themselves with greater readiness to recent technological changes in industry, and also the more adaptable of the older workers, succeeded in obtaining employment, while the less efficient remained unemployed." As regards the time of life at which age becomes a disadvantage in obtaining employment, the report fixes this "very generally" at "around 45," when the physiological efficiency of the average person begins to decline. Examining possible causes for discrimination against elderly workers, the report finds that while, on the one hand, mechanisation has favoured them by doing away with much heavy labour, on the other hand it has aggravated their position by creating new forms of work, the increased speed and intensity of which are so exhausting that older workers cannot stand the strain.

Some employers, the report points out, prefer older workers on the ground that they are more experienced and efficient and have better judgment; they are best fitted for certain jobs, especially where quality is important; they are more reliable and reduce labour turnover. Other employers, however, object to them on the ground that they are unable to maintain a piece-work pace; they lack muscular strength: and their mental processes show signs of slowing down. Discussing possible discrimination growing out of the annual costs of insurance risks for sickness invalidity old age, and death, the report admits that opportunities of employment for '>lder workers may be restricted by the desire of employers to prevent an • Increase in insurance contributions.

But the belief sometimes expressed by American employers that older workers arr a more expensive accident, risk, is held bv the report to be unfounded "as regards industry goner oily, though not perhaps for each industry separately." In this connection, it noi' ts out that while the proportion of accidents resulting in permanent incapacity or death is greater among older workers, they are less Hpble to accidents than younger men. Hence, says the report, the greater cost of benefits to older workers is balanced by the lower freouency of the accidents they experience

After enumerating the various remedies that have been proposed with a view l o Improving the position of the older worker, the report ex amines in some detail the effect of probable population changes on this problem. The gradual ageing of the population, which has been in process since the beginning of the present century, it says, will no doubt re suit in deerersing the proportion of younger workers while increasing the proportion of older workers Consequently, it says, it is not im possible 'hat in the distant future a time may come when industry may be obliged by the scarcity of younper labour to have recourse to older workers and that the problem may thus generate its own remedy.