FORTY-HOUR WEEK

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24634, 16 June 1941, Page 6

FORTY-HOUR WEEK

TRADES COUNCIL'S DEFENCE WAR EFFORT NOT AFFECTED EXTENSION WHERE NECESSARY ' i PA.) WELLINGTON, June 14. In reply to statements recently made regarding the heed for revision of hours of,work in the Dominion, including a statement by Mr M. G. C. McCaul. a member of the" executive of the Wellington Chsmber of Commerce, the Wellington Trades Council, in a defence of the 40-hour week, based its defence on the belief that it makes for greater efficiency in industry, has not resulted in a decrease of production, and by ensurine the good health of the workers' enables them to respond more readily to the call for increased production whenever and wherever made.

Wer production has not suffered, the council declares, and the Industrial Emergency Council has not rejected one application in which adequate reasons for variation of an award have been advanced. As to wages and overtime, in every case where suspension of an order has been granted the workers have conceded part or the whole of the overtime rates to which they are entitled under thie Factories Act or award. Some orders provide for shift work, and in lieu of overtime a special shift allowance has been provided. Several suspension orders provide for working an extra four hours a week at ordinary rates. Hitlerism. the council states; means long hours and low wages, the abolition of trade unionism, and the reduction of the mass of workers to a condition of serfdom. It is against th« threat of these things that we are engaped in war. To return to a longer working week will not benefit the war effort. How would it in the case, for instance, of caretakers and cleaners? the council asks.

The statement concludes with a reference to workers not engaged in an essential war industry spending their leisure in the Home Guard and in E.P.S. duties, stating that it is worth noting:that the'lQO.OOiO,, members of the Home i Guard "have npt'/all been recruited from tie ranks of chambers of commerce and other anti-working Class organisations.