FORTY-HOUR WEEK

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 52, Issue 3771, 19 June 1936, Page 7

FORTY-HOUR WEEK

EMPLOYERS’ CLAIMS FOR EXEMPTION. BUSY TIME AHEAD FOR COURT OF ABITRATION. Industry is taking a great deal of interest in a special sitting of the Court of Abitration to be held in Wlellington on Monday to consider application for exemption from the 4‘Lhour week in factories, or the temporary extension of hours to 44 when the legislation comes into force on September L A very large number of applications is being prepared throughout New Zealand by the Various employers’ organisations, which are busy grouping them for presentation to the court. The secretary of the New Zealand Employers’ Federation, Mr T. O. Bishop, stated yesterday that the applications would fall into three groups as follows:(1) Those industries in which proceedings in connection with new awards have already been taken, in which cases the employers will apply to the Court of Arbitration for interim orders maintaining the 44hour week until such time as the new awards are made, either by negotiation or by the court itself. (2) Those industries in which the employers concerned desire a little longer time to adapt their processes to the shortar working week, but who are prepared to adopt the 40-hour week in, say, six months. In these cases the application will be for shortterm orders, probably until the end of the present year. (3) Those industries in which, beclause of the impossibility of performing the Work in 40 hours, a permanent extension of hours will be asked for. In this group, naturally come such, industries as gas works, cement works, and others in which continuous processes are carried on for 24 hours in every day of the year. The three strongest grounds on which applications for exemption could be based were, in their opinion, as follow: (a) Technical impossibility of carrying out the process in 40 hours. (b) Severe shortage of skilled labour in the industry, which might be accepted as ground for temporary exemption. (c) The booking of orders for the coming season at the old prices. Insuch cases firms might ask the court for exemption until such time as their contracts were completed. Mir Mander added that Mr Nisbet wfould be pitting forward a large number of applications on behalf of manufacturers.