NEW SOUTH WALES, WITH ITS FORTY-HOUR WEEK, EMBARRASSES MR. CHIFLEY

Wanganui Chronicle, 26 February 1947, Page 5

NEW SOUTH WALES, WITH ITS FORTY-HOUR WEEK, EMBARRASSES MR. CHIFLEY

(From C. R. Mentiplay, N.Z.P.A. Correspondent 1 Reed. 7.15 p.m. Sydney, Feb. 25 The decision of the New South Wales Government, under the new Premier (Mr. McGirr) to give all employees under State awards a 40-hour week has produced a chain of violent reactions throughout Australia. Many regard it as an election bait and others as an expensive luxury which is out of the question in this time of shortages and risii'f costs. Though there has been no pronouncement from the Federal Government, the decision must have caused embarrassment among Ministers ol Hie Chifley Administration. For over a year now the Arbitration Court ha:-, proceeded with the hearing of evidence for and apain.-t the introduction of a genera! 40-hour week in Australian industry. To-day even the judges are tired, an instance being Mr. Justice Foster’s gentle protest; “I have been fitting on the case for more than twelve months. Scon : will be called a 4u-ycais’ case.” Despite the cumbrous methods of Court procedure and continual pressure from all sides, the Chifley Government has remained steadfastly in support of arbitration as the sole means of settling the matter. Objections of the Leftist element in the Labour Party have extended to the powerful Australasian Council of Trade Unions, which threatens a nationwide strike on May 1 if matters are not expedited. The Chifley Government, which can regard even this with impassivity, must be shocked by the sudden break in the ranks of political Labour. Arbitration authorities claim tiiat the move will cost the State about £25,000,000. applying, as it does, to 480 State awards and 200 industrial agreements and affecting more than half a million workers.

Opposition by employers industrialists and political enemies centres round the impropriety of the move at a time when the matter of granting a 40-hour week is under court action. Strength is added to their case by the fact that New South Wales transport, which already shows an alarming deficit, will be even more adversely affected. Matters were not made easier for the Government by the revelations, since denied, that New South Wales would face a deficit of up to £4,000,000 this year. In denying this figure, Mr. McGirr did not deny the existence of a debit.

Opponents say simply that. New South Wales, already “in the red,” cannot afford il. This is the opinion of Mr. Douglas Fell, president of the Employers’ Federation, who says that shorter hours would mean that the six year lag in production would never he made up. Surprisingly enough, New Zealand has so far made only one appearance in the Press arguirfent on (he 40-hour and tha'v was in the guise of a horrible example. Writing in the Sydney “Daily Telegraph” under the heading “It Doesn’t, deliver goods in New Zealand,” Olaf Ruhen tells Australians how bad things are in the sister Dominion. Unfortunately for hi s argument, he mixes it. with talk of shortages in transport vehicles and liquors, which have more to do with import restrictions than with the 40-hour week, as a peg on which to hang most of New Zealand’s more obovious post-war shortcomings.