LONGER HOURS.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17155, 26 May 1921, Page 2

LONGER HOURS.

TELEGBAPH AND TELEPHONE OPERATORS. Generally throughout the Post -and Tejegraph service the working day is seven hours. The regulations fix tho working week at a maximum of 44 hours exclusive'of overtime. Hitherto it has been the practice for telegraph operators to work approximately six hours, including a meal interval of twenty minutes or thereabouts : and telephoneexchange operators have regularly worked a nominal ?ix-]iours' day. Instructions have lately been issued for a revision of the duty sheets so that operators in both branches of the Department shall work seven hours a day on week-days. This does not mean seven hours a day for six days, except in a minority of cases, because the statutory half-holiday demand fewer operators, and that day is i;orrcspondin»ly shortened. Sunday work is paid for at overtime rates.

The object of the changes, it is officially explained, is not to dispense with the services of any operators now employed, but to economise in the number who would have to bo aDiwinted to meet tho regular growth of the Department's business. The telephone system, in particular, is growing rapidly, and demands more and mon> operators, especially in the smaller exchanges; and the addition to the working hours will enable this demand to be more or less fully met with the "existing staff, and without adding to the drain on the finances available. ' v