SEVEN HOURS A DAY.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 2790, 30 May 1921, Page 2

SEVEN HOURS A DAY.

TELEGRAPHS AND TELEPHONES

Generally throughout the Post and Telegraph service the working day is seven hours. The regulations fix the working week at a maximum of 44 hours, exclusive of overtime. Hitherto It has been the practice for telegraph operators to work approximately six hours, including a meal inter-

val of 20 minutes or thereabouts; ami telephone-exchange operators have regularly worked a nominal sixhours’ day. Instructions have lately been issued for a revision of the duty sins'ts so that operators in both branches of the service shall work seven hours a day on week days. This does not mean seven hours a day for six days, except in a minority of cases, because the statutory halfholiday demands lower operators, and that day is corrosjioiidiiigly shortened. Sunday work is paid for at overtime rates. The object of the changes, it is officially explained, is not- to dispense' with the services of the operators now employed, but to economise* m tho number that would otherwise be appointed to m<*ct the regular growth of tho department’* business. The telephone - system, in particular, is growing rapidly, and demands more And more' operators, especially in the smaller exchanges. The addition to tho working hours will enable tins demand to be more or less fully met by the existing staff, without adding to the drain ©n the finances available.