LABOUR DIRECTION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26617, 13 November 1947, Page 7

LABOUR DIRECTION

NEW BRITISH ORDER COMPULSORY REGISTRATION Rec. 11 p.m. LONDON, Nov. 12. A new employment order under which all unoccupied persons and others not engaged in useful employment will be compelled to register for direction, if necessary, to essential work, will come into force on December 8. The age limits for registration are 18 to 51 for men and 18 to 41 for women. Married women living with their husbands and mothers -looking after their own children under 15 are excluded. There will be no exemption for titled people, says the parliamentary correspondent of the Daily Mail. Peers, baronets and wealthy men and women not gainfully occupied will have to register if they are in the age groups. The first registrations will probably take place on December .12 for those aged 18 to 25. The Times parliamentary correspondent points out that there will be awkward decisions to make about whether persons are “gainfully occupied.” This consideration, he says, will apply to many whose activities are by no means antisocial and the Ministry of Labour will be guided by the past decisions of umpires on the ouestion of “ gainful occupation. There will be the right of appeal both c-n this point and on the grounds of personal hardship. The maximum penalty for failing to register will.be a fine of £IOO or three months imprisonment or both, but it is the Government's hope, the correspondent adds that all those concerned will make a patriotic response to the call to enter productive emDloyment during the period of national emergency, ana that it will not be necessary to rely on compulsion and penalties.