THE FORTY-HOUR WEEK

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume XXXXI, Issue 9639, 25 June 1941, Page 3

THE FORTY-HOUR WEEK

SUGGESTED ABOLITION DURING WiR

LOCAL BODY RESOLUTION

VIEWS OF MEMBER FOR THAMES

Some of his.reasons for his opposr

tion to the resolution from the Lake Coilnty Council, Queenstown, urging the immediate cessation of the 40hour week, which it was held was

justified and necessary in view of the

national emergency, were given by Mr James Thorn, M.P. for Thames,

in a letter to the Hauraki Plains Council Council, which had approved the resolution and referred the matter to him. It will he recalled that the same resolution failed to find support at the monthly meeting of the Waihi Borough Council last Wednesday evening, members agreeing that such matters were for the Government alone to decide; and that local authorities should not attempt to make recommendations on subjects about which the Government and the War Council were far better informed than they were.

PROVISION FOR EMERGENCY

"Much of the opposition to the 40hour week is advanced by people who opposed it before the war began. The war has given to these people an excuse to attack this beneficial measure. Hence their motives may be .questioned. It is not always patriotism that moves them, but a desire to drive their fellows," wrote Mr Thorn. "The fact that a 40-hour week applies to an industry does not necessarily mean that only 40 hours may be worked in that industry. Overtime may be worked —and paid for. In various industries affecting munitions production in New Zealand in which the 40-hour week principle operates, hours of up to GO and 70 a week are now being worked. Mr W. Holmes, of the British Trades Union Congress, who recently visited the Dominion, informed many public meetings that the weekly working hours fixed during times of peace in the Old Country, whether in legislation or in agreements binding the Trades Unions and the employers, had not been increased since the war began, and that even the employers had not asked that they should be increased. POSITION IN BRITAIN

"According to Mr Holmes, all that has happened in Britain is that the trades unions have agreed to the lifting of limits on overtime and on the employmnt of apprentices. This gives the employers the right to work uttimited overtime, but for all hours •worked over the normal working week they have to pay overtime rates. If, in Britain, where industrial establishments are bombarded day and night, the employers can pay overtime rates for work done in excess of ordinary working hours, employers in our favoured country should not be allowed to escape from this obligation. I may add that hi Britain within recent weeks a Committee on National Expenditure appointed by the Government has recommended that hours must be reduced in the interests of the workers' health and of production, so showing that the overtime has been overdone. The Industrial Emergency Council set up by the New Zealand Government ; has authority to recommend to the \ Minister of Labour that hours should be increased and conditions of awards be varied where this is proved necessary to increase the Avar effort or serve the interests of the country. Both the employers' and the workers' unions have an equal number of representatives.

COMMITTEE TO DECIDE

"To this committee every applicati6n tot authority to increase hours is referred, and the committee reaches its decisions only after hearing representations from all the interests concerned. All its decisions so far have been unanimous, and as a result awards have been varied and hours increased in a substantial number of industries (including dairy factories). I may say that the alterations, in awards accepted by theunions under this procedure constitute far greater sacrifices of conditions than is the case in either Great Britain or Australia. A general increase in hours would be ridiculous if raw material were not available in sufficient quantities to sustain machine production and unemployment would result. Any lengthening of working hours merely to lengthen them without reference to the question as to whether this was necessary or justifiable would cause widespread resentment which, if disputes resulted, would hamper production and so reverse the aims of those who believe in sincerity that an increased working week is one of the ways out of our difficulties. - "I respectfully suggest to your council that it is unwise to lend itself to an agitation which disturbs and pi'ovokes the trades unions, upon the work, the co-operation and goodwill of wlic*e 250,000 members the nation largely depends for success in this terrible conflict."