40-HOUR WEEK

Stratford Evening Post, Volume IV, Issue 223, 1 September 1936, Page 7

40-HOUR WEEK

PROTEST AT WAIHI. COURT'S RULING. No Saturday Work Should! B$ The Rule. MINERS INDIGNANT. Press Association —Copyright. Waihi, August 31. A mass meeting of members of the local unions associated with the mining industry was held yesterday morning to discuss the 40-hour week question, and passed the following resolutions:— "That this meeting of unions emphatically protests against the judgment of the Arbitration Court in so far as permitting work on Saturdays is concerned. We are of the opinion that judgment in that respect is not in conformity with the spirit of the legislation," and "that members work the 40 hours week from midnight Sunday continuously for five days and overtime rates to apply after that time, and no relieving men to take the place of the men stood clown during the five days." The men were unanimous that they should not be required to work broken shifts and make up lost time on that particular shift on Saturday. As a result of the combined unions' decision the Martha mine and the battery at Waikind were idle to-day. When the men went to work this morning the interpretation of the 40 hours week by the company was not accepted. Certain employees reported at the usual time for work but were not allowed to start until such time as that allotted by the company under its new adjustment of hours to meet the 40 hours. Members of the union were unable to agree. Consequently all work at the mine and battery ceased to-day. The unions were not consulted in the adjustment of the new hours of work.

Changes Explained.

Explaining the changes that had been made in the conditions to comply with the order of the Arbitration Court, Mr. R. G. Milligan, a director and attorney of the Martha Gold Mining Company, said that at the hearing of the union's application for a 40-hour week the company had submitted that it was a physical impossibility to work a five-day week with the existing plant without reducing the tonnage of ore handled. The court accepted this submission and made an order permitting the same work on Saturdays as on other week-days without the payment of overtime. Officers of the company, said Mr. Milligan, had spent three days in drawing up a rearrangement of routine work whereby men in all sections would be enabled to work a 40-hour week, although the equivalent of the former five and a half days' work would be maintained in the mine as a whole. This involved the engagement of a number of additional men as relieving hands. Every endeavour had been made to arrange the working hours as simply and conveniently as possible, but broken shifts could not be avoided. These, however, had been worked to some extent under the former system. According to information received by the company from the Minister of Labour (the Hon. H. T. Armstrong), the as-sistant-Secretary for Labour (Mr. Moston) and the Hon. E. Dye will arrive at Waihi from Wellington to-morrow to discuss the cause of the stoppage with representatives of the men. Mr. Dye when he was appointed to the Legislative Council last March had been for a number of years president of the Ohinemuri Mines and Batteries Union.