MEETING OF BANK EMPLOYEES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7154, 19 July 1901, Page 1

MEETING OF BANK EMPLOYEES.

A meeting' of bank employees w»s held in the Chambei* of^Coinmierfie lpst evening t& consider- the' proposed' Shops and Offices Bill. The ati^daace was smalh Tbe, chairman; said the meeting, lid ieen called^ ■ in-'--. ord«p r -*hait- a-^-ina^^mphatie p'rpt^tmight lie. made against the measure, whichf famt prove inhnw«l'' ; ior~the interests of bank employees. A ifteetjng lad bean held; itt. Wellington, and it hadi&en dec%& to 1 forward- a petition ; protesting against the Bill to both Houses of parliament. The, secretary said that he had been, entrusted' with certain, propositions to bring forward.' Of course, the. object of the Bill was to benefit, amongst others, bank clerks. - The general opinion seemed to be that they, would not be benefited at all. At present \ they were allowed to. stay. late, ten nights every month, and three hours on each of these nights,' besides certain" extra .times.! for bank balance. Even in this time, it was- often very difficult to get- through the work. Under. the proposed Act- they "could only work six nights, which would make matters much harder. They, would only be allowed four weeks at two seasons of the year for bank balance, a m d then they would have to be paid overtime. If this was done, of course, they would euffer. At present, bank employees would often get away early and: make uj> the time by staying later. If they always had to get away at fixed times, they would be more bound down. They would lose all their privileges. At present they always had a \ chance of getting ordinary -leave, and if a man was sick he might ges three months',, holiday on full pay. There had been awn© agitation in the papers about, bank derib, but he did not think the clerks took much , interest in it. They had the interests of the bank at heart as well as their own. . if they had overtime, their salaries would; doubtless be reduced proportionately It was not desired to kill tte i Bill, but to get backs exempted. Then the Act would be practically gone and they would be free, agents. The secretary then proposed: — "That thipy meeting of bank officers, representing all the banks doing business in Ohristchurch, alter consideration of the provisions of the Shops and. Offices Bill now presented to tie. Legislature by the Hon : W., 6f^toion (1) Tfcat the; .proposed iegi»la.tion would be -prejudicial |o the interests of bank' officials on the polony ; '. {2) that the: amount of ;. overtone woVktd ,aifc; present is a»t generally soigreat' aa the Bmimplies; (3) that the-paasage of the Bill will almost-oertainly ater tihe existing cordial relations between 1 the employers and the employee, which would imdoubtedly be to the detriment of the latter ; (4) •that the time clauses are unworkable if the demands of the business community are to be met; (5) that if banks b© compelled by law to .pay overtime, it is only reasonable to expect that certain privileges now extended ko their officers, su6h as full pay While on holiday or sick leave, would be discontinued ; (6) thai; if office hours are regulated a» proposed, officers would bs unable to absent fchejnselv«s from duty, as at present, by sjrtcial ari#igememt, during •suoh Seoul's for private business, having the privilege of completing their work in the evening ; (7) Glauses 7 and 8 provided that a commattee he formed to prepare a petition for presentation to both Houses, and that every assistaiice should be^given to! thl <sentrdl oommittee im Wellington. The w»rds "generally" in Clause 2 &nd "coy-, dial " in Clause 3 were added by tihe meeting. There w*3 very little discussion on the proposals,- which w.«re carried one by. one, with a- >fe\r _ apparently facetious "Noes." Afterwards a clause was added to tihe effect that, in case 'the 801 l should" pass into law there shoiild be no ■exemptions from the overtime rule. Other speakers thought that the bank employees soould be careful not to be left to work late every night with no remedy and no overtime, and the principle, enunciated by some, that no State interference between the bank employers and employees 1 was wanted,-'did nob meet wiui general approval. After some informal discussion, the meeting ck>s-