TWO CIRCULARS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 96, 13 June 1911, Page 7

TWO CIRCULARS.

WHAT THEY MEAN TO EMPLOYERS. The many people who shop on S'aturday nights will have observed the incidence of the business of closing, sajs the Dunedin “Star.” They will have seen that business premises do not close at 9 o’clock, but that after that hour the work of the assistants is more or less that of taking the day clothes oil the shop promises, and allaying them in their robes dc unit, ’lids function takes place during what is known as the “half-hour’s grace, seemingly provided in the Shops and Offices Act by the following clause; - If any simp assistant is employed at any work in connection with tho business of any shop later than half an hour after tiio lime prescribed by this section, the employer commits an offence in respect of each shop assistant ro employed. A second clause makes the same provision in respect of office assistAccorcling to the opinion of the Soli-citor-General, embodied in a circular issued by the Labour Department, tlio acids “in connection with the business of any shop” do not apply to work done inside a shop or office, but to, work done outside, such, for example, as the delivery of parcels and missions of a similar kind. Tho Department, however, states that a few minutes’ grace will bo allowed for setting things to light, and that an assistant will bo allowed to serve a customer who is in tho shop at the hour. Enquiry made in Dunedin shows that the employers are satisfied tlrA tho Solicitor’s opinion will not hold rood, and it has been decided to reel the matter lo the New Zealand Employers’ Federation in Wellington, ■o that a test case can be arranged ind fought out in a Court of law. One' employer explains that it practically shortens their Saturday night ‘■r ale (o one hour, for pconle are rare's on tim .streets I ill al ter'T.dO, and u> ■;et employees out of the shops by 9 ■•induces will have to cease at about J.PO. There is said, too, to be nnotlici iicul tr ' issued in Wellington, pro-h-iming that whore, owing to a public ■lolida s occui ring on a day other than Vednecdav, grocers’ shops usually . losing mi Wednesday afternoon icedi! op in, the employers must pay dine and a half.