WORKING WEEK

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 610, 12 March 1929, Page 9

WORKING WEEK

How Many Days ? Asks Minister NATIONS’ LABOUR British Official Wireless Reccl. 11 a.m. RUGBY, Monday. The governing body of the International Labour Office opened its 43rd j session at Geneva this morning. For j the first time three Labour Ministers ■ were present—Sir Arthur Steel-Mo.it-land (Great Britain), M. Loucheur j (France), and Dr. Wissell (Germany) j —and the main subject of discussion j was the Washington Eight-hours’ Convention. Sir Arthur Steel-Maitland, in referring to the British atti- j tude, said Great Britain had always favoured the principles of the Convention, both in principle and in practice. Great Britain’s industries, with very few exceptons, already conformed in actual practice with the principles of the Washington Convention but he would explain why Great Britain hesitated to ratify the Convention, and why he asked for a revision of the Convention. Ambiguity in international law might have a very different effect from ambiguity in an international convention. If there were ambiguity in an international convention, it was open to each nation that ratified it to interpret it as it thought right. It became clear to all who had studied the text of the Washington Convention deeply that there were important points which deserved reconsideration owing to the general uncertainty of their interpretation. What, for example, he said, was the actual interpretation to be put upon the 'phrase, “Hours of working?” How was intermittent work to be defined? What exactly were the limits of overtime as applied to railway workers, articles 1 and 2, the whole object of which was the regulation of hours of work? Another question somewhat allied to this was—What did the Convention mean by the word “week?” Was Sunday excluded, or did it mean the ordinary calendar week of seven days? Further provisions governing the distribution of the forty-eight hour normal working week appeared unnecessarily restrictive. Should it be permissible to distribute these normal working hours, provided they did not exceed 48 hours in a week, over five or even four days?

Having de-alt with various other points, Sir Arthur Steel-Maitland said that if they had an amended convention in which the difficulties he had mentioned were satisfactorily settled, he would recommend his Government to ratify it, and he was sure it would consent.