PROBLEM FOR SHOPMEN

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5234, 3 February 1928, Page 3

PROBLEM FOR SHOPMEN

& THE NEW-REGULATIONS. POSITION OF PARTNERS. A curious, if not humorous position is createfi for partners in fruit or confectionery businesses by the amended regulations under the Shops and Offices; Act. Section 23 provides that every fruiterers’ shop in which two Or more persons are engaged, whether as assistants or not, shall be registered inmanner in the name of one proprietor as occupier, and no alteration in thq name of the registered occupier sjiall be made except with the approval of the inspector. Every person engaged in any such shop, except the registered occupier thereof, and the wife or husband, as the case may be, of such occupier, sjiall for all purposes of the principal Act be deemed to be a shop assistant. There are certain hours after which employees may mot be employed. Under the first schedule of, the principal Act the hours of employment in fruiterers’ and confectioners’ shops are till 10.39 p.m. on four working days of the week, l_p.ni. on the ihalfhdttiday, and 11 p.m. on the other day. This clause 23 of the .1927 Amendment prohibits, the employment of aijy male after the hours abovementioned, whether he be partner or relative; of the occupier. The only exception is the 'husband or wife of the resident occupier.

In addition, no person other than the registered occupier will be perjnitted to work more than 48 hours a week.

Thus here arises this curious position : One of two partners, must decide who is, to be the registered proprietor.

They may toss up for the position, and then the loser may don fiis coat at 10-30 p.m., 1 p.m., or 11 p.m. and cheerfully tell his partner to “carry on.”

Incidentally those shopkeepers who have confronted an inspector with the assertion that So-and-spi was a partner may not now describe a person working after hours mentioned as a partner and get away with it.