FORTY-FOUR-HOUR WEEK.

Otago Witness, Issue 3861, 13 March 1928, Page 9

FORTY-FOUR-HOUR WEEK.

JUDGE OUTSPOKEN. “ MEN WOULD STARVE.” M (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY. February 23. With the announcement by Chief Judge Detheridge that the community could not stand the cost, the unions have abandoned the idea of obtaining from the Arbitration Court, as at present constituted, a universal 44-hour week. He told the parties before him in Melbourne that the greatest sufferers from such a reduction would be the. workers themselves. The secretary of the union that was before the court informed the judge that his members felt very strongly on the question of a shorter week. Chief Judge Detheridge replied: “ 1 suppose you could say the same of every industry in Australia. They are all keenly anxious to have a 44-hour week, but it is another thing to be able to get it. Forty-eight hours with a job is better than 44 hours without one. That is the real stumbling block in many of these cases of a shorter week. Men would lose their jobs. It is an idea I have formed after grave consideration. The working men of the community could not afford it There is not enough money being made. If hours were cut down to 401 a week, a lot of men would starve. When we get down to the question of where the border line exists, I have come to the conclusion that if a great majority of the workers were to say: ‘ I will not work more than 44 hours a week,' they would pinch their bellies. That is getting down to homely language. I am not troubling about the employers so much. The 44hour week for everyone would never do. ft may be that in 20 years’ time the country may have so increased its productiveness as to make a general reduction in hours more feasible.”

It was pointed out to the judge that the men whose claims were before the court—motor lorry drivers —were engaged in* a particularly dangerous occupation. The judge questioned whether the danger would be lessened by a reduction of hours to which the union secretary replied: “ Yes, certainly. The longer these men work, the greater the strain.” Chief Judge Detheridge: “ A fair day’s work in the ordinary course makes a man tired at'the end of the day. It is proper that be should be tired. It is also proper that the men should do a fair share if work. It would be a good thing if every man in the community had to do such an amount of work as would make him fairly tired at the end of the day. Most of us have to do it. If you get an undue amount of fatigue, I agree that it should be prevented.”