NO EXCUSE NOW

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 05, Issue 58, 27 May 1942, Page 3

NO EXCUSE NOW

THE FORTY-HOUR WEEK BURDEN, OF OVERTIME Observations on hours of work in wartime are made in the latest bulletin of the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce, prepared after consultation with the Department of Economies of Canterbury! University College. After making the point that the ease for the 40-hour week was advanced mainly as a means of absorbing the unemployed and as a palliative for depression but that the need now is to extend production to meet, as far as possible, a capacity for consumption greatly increased by the war, the bulletin proceeds: "An important aspect of the legal limitation of hours, seldom discussed and not emphasised when the 40hour week was introduced, is its elfect on the earnings, of labour and consequently on labour costs. Op posted! to National Interests "Overtime rates were regarded largely as penal rates designed to jjrevent overtime being Avorked and to stimulate the adoption of the alternative method of securing increased output, that of employing more men. Now that men are in short supply and the situation demands that the limited manpower be stretched as far as it will go, the overtime regulations, like the 40hour week, are no longer appropriate, and in fact both are in direct opposition to the national interest. "Overtime rates are a cause of ! particular difficulty where prices are fixed, and they are now fixed so widely that in some cases additional goods' and services which are really needed are not produced because they cannot be produced without overtime work, and the prices fixed will not cover the cost; of overtime rates. "This does not mean that overtime rates should not be paid. They should be paid for hours of work in excess of what can fairly -be regarded as reasonable, in view of all the existing conditions. 1 hen they are necessary, both as a reward for extra effort and as a penalty to discourage unduly long hours. But a standard 40-hour week is obviously not reasonable in present conditions"