Expensive Luxury; Election Bait

Chronicle (Levin), 26 February 1947, Page 8

Expensive Luxury; Election Bait

Received Tuesday, 7.15 p.m. SYDNEY, Peb. 25. Tlie decision of the New fcSoutli Wales Goveniment, under Mr. McGirr, to give all employees under State awards a 40nour week, has prQdueed a eliain oi viulent reaetions throughout Australia. -vlany regard it as election bait and otliers as an expensive luxury which is out of the questiou in this time oi shortages and rising costs. Though iliere Jias been no pronouncement from tlie Fedeial Government, llie decision niust have caused efnbarrassment ;unong Ministers of the Chifley administration. For over a year now the Arbitration Court has proceeded with tlie hearing of evidence for and against the intro duction of a general 40-hour week in Australian industry. Today even the judges are tired as, for instance, Mr. •Justice Foster's gentle protest: "J" liave been sitting on the case for more tlian twelve months. Soon it will be called the 40-years' case." Despile 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 mattor. The objections of the left ist elemcnt in the Labour Party have extended to the powerful Australasian Councii of Trade Unions which threatens a nation-wide strike on May 1 if matters are not expedited. The Chifley Government, which can regard even this with inipassivity, must be shocked bv the sudden break in the ranks oi' jTolitical Labour. The arbitration authorities claim that the move will eost the State about £25, 000, 000, applying as it does to 480 State awards and 200 industrial agreements and aifecting more tlian 500,000 workers. The opposition bv employers, indiistrialists and political enemies, centres round the impropriety of the move at a time when the matter of granting the 40-hour week is under Court action. Strength is added to their case by the fact that New South Wales transport, which alreadv shows an alarming delicit, will lie even more adversely affected. Matters were not made easier for the Government by the revelation, sinee denied, that New South Wales would face a deficit of up to £4,000,000 tliis year. In denying this figure, Mr. McGirr did not deny the existence of a debit. Opponents say siinply that New South Wales is already "in the red" and caiinot alford it. This is the opinion of Mr. Douglas Fell, president of the Employers' Federation, who says that shorter liours wmild inean that the six-year lag in production would never be made up. Surprisingly enough, New Zoaland .has ko far made only oue appeafance in the press argument on the 40-hour week and that was in the guise of a horrible e.xample. Writing in the Sydney Telfigraph under the heading "It doesn 't deliver the goods in New Zealand," Mr. Olaf Ttuhen tells Australians how liad things are in the sister Doininion. Unfortunately for his argument he mixes it with talk of shortages in transport vehicles and liquors which have more to do with imj port restrictions tlian watli the. 40-hour week, as the peg oh which to hang niOKt of New Zealand 's more obvious postwar shortcomings. As sueh it makes tine escapist reading for Australians only tno preoeeupied with tliose in their own eountry.