ARBITRATION COURT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 143, 18 June 1936, Page 8

ARBITRATION COURT

GREAT INTEREST IN SPECIAL SITTING 40-HOUR WEEK EXEMPTION? , [ Per Press Association. ] WELLINGTON, June 17. Industry is taking a great deal of interest in the special sitting of the Court of Arbitration to be held in Wellington on Monday to consider applications for exemption from the 40-hour week in factories <jr a temporary extern sion of hours to 44, when the legislation comes into force on September 1 A very large number of applications is being prepared throughout New Zea land by various employers’ organisations which are busy grouping them for presentation to the Court. The secretary of New Zealand Employers' Federation, Mr. T. O. Bishop stated to-day that the applications would fall into three groups: (1) Those industries in which proceedings in connection with new awards have already been taken, in which cases employers will apply to the Court of Arbitration for interim orders maintaining a 44-hour 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 shorter working week, but who are pre pared to adopt the 40-hour week id. say, six months. In these case's the applications will be for short term orders, probably until the end of the present year. (3) Those industries in which, because of the impossibility of performing the work 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 I are carried on for 24 hours in every day of the year. An outline of the attitude the manufacturers considered the Court of Arbitration was likely to adopt toward the applications for exemption from the 40hour week provision was given bv the secretary of the New Zealand Manufacturers’ Federation, Mr A. r. Mander, to-day. He said he and Mr A. W. Nisbet, secretary of the Wellington Manufacturers’ Association, had given considerable attention to the Government’s industrial legislation and had again interviewed the Minister of Labour, the Hon. 11. T. Armstrong. As a result, the.v had formed a very strong impression that the Government did not intend that the Court should grant exemptions from the application of the 40-hour week except in very exceptional cases. The mere fa”t that costs would be increased would almost certainly not he considered of itself sufficient ground for exemption. The three strongest grounds on which applications for exemption could be based were, in their onin'nn as follow: fa)\ Technical impossibility of carrying out the process in 40 hnu’’s; (ID ' a severe shortage of skilled labour in industry which might bp accented as a ground for temporary exemption; O') the booking of order? for the coming season at old prices Tn sn li cases the firms miHit ask the Court for exemption until such time as their contracts v-e-p cnmnlefod. Mr. Mander added that Mr. Nisbet would bp putting forward a large number of applications on behalf of manufacturers.