THE PUBLIC PAYS

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 931, 26 March 1930, Page 11

THE PUBLIC PAYS

WORKERS’ REDUCED HOURS AUSTRALIAN JUDGES OPINION Recently in the Arbitration Court. Judge Dethridge expressed the opinion that it was not the employer but th • community that paid for higher wages and reduced hours. He had before him the application of Mr. P. Ry’an, for the Federated Liquor Trades Employees’ Union, that provision for 12 days’ annual leave at double pay' on the completion of 12 months’ service should be incorporated in the dp' award.

His Honour: The difficulty is tin . that if I introduce it here as a pr< vision in this award, notwithstanding the opposition of the employers, the employees in every occupation would have the same right to apply to the Court for it. It is an innovation, and it is a very bad time to make innovations. X cannot blind my eyes to the present condition of industry' in th-* country, the frightful amount of unemployment, which is making life miserable for a very large section of the working classes. The more I put up prices as a result of increasing labour costs, the more unemployment there will be. Mr. Ryan: I submit, in regard to this matter, that it is most important. His Honour: I agree that probably it is a desirable thing that people should have a break. If employees in this country are prepared to accept 44 hours a week for the purpose of spreading employment among those who are at present unemployed, Ihey may do so, but if they do, they themselves must accept lower wages. They must pay the price. A yveek of 41 hours may be desirable, but unless production is increased by new methods of work, the spreading of work and, the bringing of the unemployed into work mean an all-round reduction of wages. You cannot get away from it. In regard to this yearly holiday, it is an inroad upon production. The working classes, as ! a yvhole, in the long run would have Ito pay for it. No one else pays for it. | The community pays for the 44-hour | week, not the employers. The com- : muntiy pays for the yearly holiday, not I the employers. .There seems to be ; an idea that you make the employers ; pay', and that you make a blow at the ! capitalists l you cannot. It is the comi munity that pays. Mr. Ryan: That Is admitted, hut I submit that the granting of a week’s or fortnightly holiday in a given occupation is not going to be such a great burden on the community. His Honour: If it is granted to this industry, it cannot be refused to any occupation, and it means this that throughout every occupation controlled by this Court, if a week is given, something like l-52nd part of the production is taken away' from the community', that is to say', taken away from the working classes. The amount to be distributed among the working j classes will be reduced by something i like l-52nd. ! Mr. Ryan: I submit that is not the position. Ido not want to labour the ; matter, but I want to put forward what I is our viewpoint of what is just. His Hoour: Nothing is jus* to the I workmen w'hich they cannot afford. Tf ’i i give them something that mean :> i lessening of their- livelihood that is ut ; jus:. However plausible it sound:, j is not just. -