SHORTER HOURS TO BE WORKED

Southland Times, Issue 23922, 14 September 1939, Page 4

SHORTER HOURS TO BE WORKED

PETROL RESELLERS IN AUCKLAND TEMPORARY MEASURE TO MEET DROP IN TRADE (United Press Association) AUCKLAND, September 13. An appeal to motorists to assist petrol resellers in handling ■ the emergency that has arisen in the trade by (cooperating in the observance ot shorter hours has been issued by the Allied Motor Traders’ Association. It is proposed that members of the association within a 25-mile radius of the Chief Post Office, Auckland, will open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Mondays to Saturdays inclusive, and close all day on Sunday. Outside this decision, a considerable number of resellers propose to close at 1 p.m. on Saturdays. The move is a temporary measure to meet the acute situation garages are facing through the heavy drop in trade. It was pointed out that with the decline in business service stations could obviously not continue to employ staffs over longer hours, and as private motorists could obtain only 10 gallons a month there was no need for them to buy their supplies on Sundays. The proposed hours were, in any case, longer than those of most shops. The maintenance of these hours would depend on the co-operation of the motoring public. In order to avoid dismissal of staffs where possible, the Allied Motor Traders’ Association has concluded a temporary agreement with the Northern Engineering and Related Trades Union allowing the rationing of work among employees. A considerable proportion of garage employees has been engaged on a weekly basis and the agreement allows men to be employed by the hour with a guaranteed minimum of 16 hours a week. Men working on Saturday afternoons or Sundays will receive overtime rates.

The arrangement will apply only during the present emergency. It embraces garage attendants, mechanics, assemblers, vulcanizers and battery workers.

“REDUCTION IN HOURS NECESSARY” (United Press Association) WELLINGTON, September 14. With serious curtailment of petrol under the Oil Fuel Emergency Regulations it was obvious that some reduction would be necessary in the hours during which service stations and garages would remain open, said Mr F. A. Knight, secretary of the Wellington Petrol Resellers’ Association when commenting on the Auckland message. Mr Knight, who is also secretary of the New Zealand Petrol Resellers’ Association, said the question had been receiving consideration by the executive of motor trade organizations in Wellington but in view of the opening in Christchurch next Tuesday of the New Zealand Motor Trade Conference, a final decision had been held over. It had been left to the individual station operators to arrange the hours which they considered best suited to the requirements of jtheir customers. '