EMPLOYERS’ VIEW.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 179, 30 June 1937, Page 8

EMPLOYERS’ VIEW.

SHOP ASSISTANTS’ DEMANDS. Per Press Association. HASTINGS, June 29. A statement that retailers in the Dominion, in addition to a very heavy increase in wages last year were now faced with demands which, if granted, would hurt employees by pressure on employers to reduce their employment of labour to a minimum, was made by the chairman, Air C. Griffiths, at a meeting of the Hastings Retailers’ Association held to consider the award demands of the shop assistants. At present, he said, traders carried a staff sufficient to deal with customers at a few rush hours. In the agrregate, a large number of shop assistants had to be found work to fill their time during periods when customers were few and far between. To meet the rapidly rising costs and to he able to continue the service without ruin, there was only two ways open: First to give a service with the least amount of labour possible; and seccond, to pass the cost on to the consumer. In many instances, Air Griffiths added, the latter way of escape was inevitable, but in some instances competition on a lower cost basis prevented such natural sequence. “1 think it necessary, therefore, to place the facts before the public as they would have to bear the heavy end of the burden,” he added.