SHOPS AND OFFICES BILL.

Gisborne Times, Volume VI, Issue 156, 13 July 1901, Page 2

SHOPS AND OFFICES BILL.

PROTEST FROM SEVENTY BANKING OFFICIALS. OVERWORK MUCH EXAGGERATED By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, last night.

Seventy banking officials mot to-night to consider the proposals of the Shops and Offices Bill. A committee of- eleven was appointed to arrange for making representations to the Government and obtaining petitions from the Bank employees in all parts of the colony in protest against the measure in so far as it affects Banks. An early protest against the Shops and Offices Bill has been made by the Bank officials in Wellington. At a meeting tonight of the staffs of all banks doing business in the city, resolutions were unanimously passed to the effect that thc,proposed legislation would bo prejudice! to the interests of the bank officers of the colony. The amount of overwork at night implied in the Bill is much exaggerated. The passage of the Bill would be to the detriment of the employees, the time clauses being unworkable if the demands of the business community are to bo met; that if the banks arc compelled to pay overtime it was reasonable to expect that the benefits now enjoyed would be discontinued, and that petitions be presented to both Houses asking that the banks be exempted from the operation of the Act. The petitions are to be circulated among the Wellington banks at once, and the cooperation of the bank officers throughout the colony asked for.