THE 44-HOUR WEEK.

Thames Star, Volume LVII, Issue 16139, 2 July 1924, Page 5

THE 44-HOUR WEEK.

WHAT LABOUR WANTS.

THE LAW OF THE LAND.

MINISTER HOLDS OFT NO HOPE.

The Minister for Labour (the I .Hon. G. J. Anderson) held out no hope op Monday to the deputation from the Allliance of Labour which asked that legislation he introduced making the 44-hour week the law of the land. The matter, stated the Minister, was one for the Arbitration Court to decide. /‘THE WORKERS’ GOAL.”

For many years past, urged Mr J. Roberts (secretary to the alliance), the workers had been struggling to get file 44-boim week; and since 1.910 the trend had been in the direction of reducing the hours of labour to 44 per' week. For his own part, he favoured a 40-hour week; hut for the present he advocated that the 44-houry week should" he made the 'law of the land. Since the railway strike, he remarked, a number of people had been' calling for the 48-hour week; but he might state definitely that the Alliance of Labour was not going to have the 48- > hour week, and trouble would result if an attempt was made to introduce it in a number of industries ; connected vyitli the, alliance.

In view of the fact that in other countries a reduction of the hours of lobour had tended to increase production, he could not see any reason for - departing from the 44-hour week in ' this country. A five-day ( week of, eight hours per day was now being ad- : vocated abroad. Fully 70 pei cent. Y of the workers in the Dominion were now working' dn tho/'basis :^Plbouilß per week, and it would save endless argument if only Parliament could see '■ jts way to legislate in favour of (he re- • tention of the 44-hour week. * A 36-HOUR WEEK?

In support of the i made by Mr Roberts, Mr W. T. Young (general .secretary. • f the Se*- .' men’s Federation) stated that ihe time was probably' coming when hours woul have to be reduced 'from -14 to 40—perhaps even to 36—-in order to keep those men employed whom, machinery threw out Thousands of men were being displaced by the mechanical appliances that wore being introduced on the waterf.enos; and the introduction of o’l fuel, also, was throwing thousands of seafaring men out of work. For ej ample, V the i conversion of the Maurer win into an' oil-burner would throw out 282 stokers; while the reduced cutl <oesumption would affect the-employment of coal-miners. To increase the brers of labour, lie contended,,was not the right wayr.to solve tlm unenlploved : problem. /. ' . “ b

MATTER FOR ARBITRATION COURT.

The Minister replied that he could not promise legislation to fix 44, 34, or any other hours. “I think,” he added, “that it is a matter for the Arbitration Court.