CLOTHING TRADE

Southland Times, Issue 23024, 19 October 1936, Page 6

CLOTHING TRADE

ORDERS REFUSED AT AUCKLAND SHORTAGE OF LABOUR (Special to The Times.) Auckland, October 17. So acute is the labour shortage in the clothing manufacturing and millinery trade that manufacturers are being compelled to refuse orders, some having already used up the period of hours permitted by the Factories Act within a year during which they may work overtime. One manufacturer produced orders totalling nearly £40,000 which he declared he would be unable to fulfil and also deal with his ordinary Christmas trade. He also produced further documentary evidence of requests by other manufacturers to him to assist with orders, which he had been compelled to decline. Yet while industry is being handicapped by insufficient labour to such an extent that the demands of the public will have to be partly filled by importations, it is stated that the anomaly exists that there is a large body of girls willing to accept employment whom it is not possible economically to employ. These girls have factory experience, not in the clothing trade, but under the Act this experience must count in assessing wages. “Previous Experience” Clause. “The ‘previous experience’ clause in the legislation is simply intensifying unemployment,” said a manufacturer. “I could employ dozen of extra girls if it did not exist. Many of these girls are 19 or 20 years of age, with two or three years’ experience outside of my industry. I am prepared, to pay a bright girl of this type from £1 to £1 5/- a week for the first six months. “After that period such a girl should have gained such skill that she should be able to command the full rates, which lam prepared to pay. In the meantime we are paying unemployment tax in respect of unemployed, a big section of whom industry could absorb if it were not shackled.” It was suggested by the manufacturer quoted that under the Finance Act the Government had power to amend the Factories Act by Order-in-Council. It must be obvious to the Government by now that the “previous experience” clause had failed in its purpose and should be amended. The variation in its provisions that he proposed would bring hundreds of girls into useful employment in his industry alone. Restriction of Overtime. Another man pointed out that while it might be an admirable thing to restrict overtime when labour was plentiful, in the conditions now existing of booming trade and a labour shortage there should be no objection to the overtime provisions being extended provided girls were ready and willing and the supervision by the Government was adequate. At present the Factories Act restricted overtime to 90 hours a year, with a condition that a further 30 hours might be worked with the consent of the Labour Department. He understood that many Auckland firms had already used up the whole 120 hours’ allowance. It was absurd to restrict overtime in the circumstances, when orders had to be refused and clothing imported. Effect of Overtime Rate. Still another point raised was that the actual rates of overtime were crippling. A girl might be paid only 15/a week, yet if she were brought back for three hours in the evening—anything less was hardly worth while—she would be paid another 4/6. The overtime rate is 1/6 an hour. If, as was being done at present,' work was done on Saturday morning, the overtime was 6/-. Thus a girl could easily earn more in overtime in a week than her wage. These heavy overtime rates reacted against the public because they affected prices and thus reduced consumption In this manufacturer’s particular class of manufacture, prices had been halved in four years by efficient methods of manufacture, with the result that the public was absorbing quantities undreamed of in the early days of the industry. He knew of one Auckland firm which started but a few years back whose production of garments was expected to pass the million mark by December.