PURCHASES OF PETROL

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20042, 14 September 1939, Page 10

PURCHASES OF PETROL

APPEAL TO MOTORISTS ASSISTANCE TO SELLERS RATIONING OF WORK (Per Press Association.) AUCKLAND, this day. An appeal to motorists to assist petrol resellers in handling the emergency that has arisen in the trade by co-operating in the observance of shorter hours, has been issued by the Allied Motor Traders’ Association.

It is proposed that members of the association within a 25-mile radius of the Chief Post Office, Auckland, will open (from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Mondays to Saturadys inclusive, and close ail day on Sunday. Ou + side this decision, a considerable number of resellers propose to close at 1 p.m. on Saturdays.

The move is a temporary measure to meet the acute situation the garages are facing through the heavy drop in trad*.

It was pointed out that with the decline in business ’ service stations could obviously not continue to employ staffs over longer hours and, as private motorists could obtain only 10 gallons a month, there was no need for them to buy their supplies on Sundays. The proposed hours were, in any case, longer than those of most shops. The maintenance of these hours would depend on the co-opera-tion of the motoring public.

In order to avoid the dismissal of staffs where possible, the Allied Motor Traders’ Association has concluded a temporary agrement with the Northern Engineering and Related Trades’ Union, allowing the rationing of work among employees. A considerable proportion of garage employees have been engaged on a weekly basis, and the agreement allows the men to be employed by the hour, with a guaranteed minimum of 16 hours a week. Men working on Saturday afternoons or Sundays will receive overtime rates.

The arrangement will apply only during the present emergency. It embraces garage attendants, mechanics, assemblers, vulcanisers, and battery workers. ’ 1