The Forty-Hour Week

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 37, 6 November 1937, Page 9

The Forty-Hour Week

Our Owb Corre»pondent.>

WAS IT WISE? • 0 Feeling that the Government Moved Too Fast SURVEY OF ITS EFFECTS

(From

WELLINGTON, This Day. The feature of the country's new economy which is causing the Governraent most coucem at the moment i(s one which would occur to few people — the 110-hour week,, It is begipning to be recoguised by some members of the Government (though not Mr Armstrong) that in bringing the shorter working week into operatioa the Labour Party moved too fast. The feeling is gaining that had it not been for this move the position to-day would be much more secure, Among the more cautious members of the Government fhere ia a feeling that but for the 40-hour week secondary mdustry would not be eeeking State assietance toiday. It was this flnal ioad, these critics argue, which caused a condition of industrial unbalancQ and which has dTverted abroad credits which might have been utiliaed in tho country and thus further stimulated employment.

It is admitted that the shorter week has, in the short run, created a demand for more labour, but it ■ has also ha'i the; effect of malung labour a more expensive commodity and may, in the lopg run, reduce the purchasing power of the very workers it was .designed to benefit. " That" 'is' something which the Gpvernment' eontemplates ,with lively conicern, *' Ae long as it can maintain the worker In a position where'hia salary restoration i$ not entxrely swallowcd up in higher 'living costs, as long as the working man has something over to lodge in'the Post Office .Savings Bank, the Labour 'Patty holdtt itself to be safe. ; But if the moment'- comos when, despife'the Governxnent"'s rigid control cf intereet ' Tates and, moderate price fixing, "costs sweep up ' past the figtire of the restored cuts, there is trouble ahead. Would RepeaJ if They Lared, Thus thore are those members of Cabinet who (as the more talkative'of them admit) would rcpeal the 40-hour week if they dared to do so. They would repeal it all the more refcdily because it was not P&rt pf the Goverjiment'a eleotion programme, but something which was contribute.d, as au act of goodwill aa it wer.e,. by the Government. That, of courae, makeo its eifects all the more annoying. Of the effeet on secondary industry there is no room for doubt. Your corjespondent has just completed a survey of the field which included engineering shops, tanneries, boot factories, woollen mills, radio manufacturers, and clothing factories, and while there are individual differences of opinion as to .various aspects of the operation' of the ehorter week ther© is general agreement on one point: that it haa re.duced production by approximately the; relation which the lost four hours bears to the old 44-hour week— -that is to say, by 4/44tfis or about 8 or 10* per cent. The New Zealand Worker, giyen the same wagaa for a shorter . time* is not setting a higher pace during the period he ia on duty. As employers pithily ask: why chould he? In the time of great accumulations of orders some firms, notably in . the clothing industry, moved by the desire to -fill some of these orders as rapidly as possible, offered bonuses to their emplbyees. The reault, they report, was cxtremely disappointing. Output di.d not rise in the manner they had hoped, and, in eome_ dnstances, the attempt to increase it that way has been abandoned.

Production Has Been Affected. Production has naturally been aRected in different ways, aecording to the eircumstances of the factory, One progressive business with an expanding market, declares that it has not only increaaed its output to atQ&e for the losses due to .tfie^-hour week, "but has actually reduced, ite selling prices as well. It has done this by means of scientific management, by checking tho speed of operation of all its machinea and setting them to a higher, uniform pace. The workers, mostly young ones, have then been trajned to 'operate at a quicker rate. In some cawes the methods by which articles are manufactured have been revised to put down haudUng and save" 'timo.1* To-day, the firm claxms, it knows juet how much goes into every shop and avery dopartment of every shop" in its factories and what should come out every day, But even this firm, an obviously exceptional case, confesses itself beaten by • the • workertf ia one particular factory; mostly old unionista who have refused to join ih the general speed-up, who are skilled or eemi-skilled and not to be xeplaced oasily and who are operating at the old pace, retarding operations of .the-firnx as a whole. No impxovement is expected in this factory for' at lea8t tw.o, years,, when a number oi new: workers, who will start early in 1938, will have been adequately trained in the new methods. Iu addition, industrial discipline has weakened. Employers declare that there, have always been cycles of bad "discipline in .the factories; periods whoa the workers have been hard to handle. This state of afEairs has been growing raore acute during the last two years. In the clothing industry employers frankly admit that they cannot repvirnand a skiiled worlcman because ha >vould be able to find a job at tho nearest xival factory as soon as he walked in there. This state of affairs is something which employers appear to have accepte.ct.as part of tho w.ork.of.

faetory-operation; they are philosophy about it and declare . that one can only wait for tho cvcle of unrest to pasa. Lack Of Universalitv. There is another aspect of the 40-hour week, howevert which draws bitter complaints everywhere, and that is its lack of uniiversality. It is pointed out tnat many factories are not operating uu Mon.day morning; they are working a five-day week. But their competitors, the agents for imported goods, are ai their offices on Saturdays and if xetailere want supplios of goo.ds that day they are inclined to turn to the source from which they are available. And tho chances are that having patronised tho importer once and received prompt service they may give him more orders — because of the 40hour week, Most of all, the Government is now asking Itself: can the country afford tho Bhorter week? The annual report of tho Minister of Railways, just published, ehows that while the railways had tho second biggest year in their history their net earnings dropped by £170,000 on the average of the previous thrce years. due to the fact that wage* restoration and the shorter working week cut deeply iuto its finances, It is a emall indication of the cost of the ■shorter week to the eountry.