SHORTER WORKING WEEK

Waipa Post, Volume 49, Issue 3554, 6 December 1934, Page 2

SHORTER WORKING WEEK

The two shift system is not only being tried in some districts in England but is being more widely discussed as a method likely to lead to a shorter w r orking week, more leisure and more economic working. Dr H. M. Vernon, M.A., who has made a close study of this problem, says: “One of the great advantages of the tw’o shift system lies in its’elasticity. Once the principle of two eight hour shifts a day has b§en adopted as a logical successor to the one shift 48 hour week, it will be easy to relax the hours of work gradually by half hour stages. “The seven .and a half hours of actual work can first be cut down to seven hours for the morning shift only, whereby it will be possible to begin this shift at 6.30 am. instead of 6 a.m. .Next the afternoon shift can be reduced to seven hours, whereby the evening shift can be finished at 10 p.m., as at present. “Subsequent reductions to six and a half to six hours of work per week would enable the morning shift to be started at 7, 7.30 or 8 a.m., according to the time at which the evening shift was finished, so the objections of the shift workers to very early rising w’ould he overcome.

“As the shift system becomes more general, it may be found possible to relax some of the legal formalities .now involved in its application, and especially so if the hours of w’ork are cut down to six and a half per shift, with the consequent 7 a.m. start and 9 p.m. finish. It is to be hoped that whatever the relaxations allowed the welfare provisions will still be maintained, and that good cloakroom and .nessroom accommodation, coupled with adequate washing facilities, will oe insisted upon. “So far the two shift system has, with few exceptions, been adopted only in the manufacturing industries which fall under the control of the Factory Department of the Home Office, but there is no reason why the system should not.be applied to other ndustries and occupations. In shops where the working day sometimes expends from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., a two shift system might be' adopted for some of the employees, and the very tong hours sometimes worked in the hotel and catering trade might well be relieved by the adoption of the system. “With regard to occupations in which men alone are employed, it is hoped that, the extension of the shift system in manufacturing industries will lead to its being copied for road '.ransport workers and other distributers. Some drivers of motor vehicles ire compelled to work for such long hours that the over-fatigue induced has led to fatal accidents.

“In agriculture two shifts could be vorked in summer, and would be especially useful in rush periods, such as harvest time. An-eight hour day is sufficient for the drivers of moior factors and harvesters, and there would b# sufficient daylight to run two shifts during several of the summer months. The difficulty would be to find work for some of the shift workers in the winter.”