THE FORTY-HOUR WEEK

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 119, 20 June 1941, Page 4

THE FORTY-HOUR WEEK

THE Hon. P. C. Webb's complaint that too much is being made of the adherence to the forty-hour week and. too little attention is being given to the many instances where the normal hours of t'he working week have been extended by mutual agreement, between the parties concerned, beyond the statutory forty hours. This state of affairs is to be deplored because an entirely false impression is being built up and false impressions are, by their nature, dangerous. It should be the aim of the Government, by well directed publicity, to put the position in a proper perspective. If the various rearrangements which have been brought about in the furtherance of the war effort on the economic side were brought to the notice of the public a much more desirable mentality would rule in the Dominion than at present exists. This work, however, cannot be undertaken as an aside activity, it calls for the employment of an expert in the handling of economic facts, and one who dan also write descriptively of the activities which are being pursued. Publicity efforts by Government departments seem to be fated to be sporadic in their nature, whereas the activities of the Dominion really require a steady and continuous publicity effort.