EASTER SHOPPING.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 March 1921, Page 4

EASTER SHOPPING.

EMPLOYMENT OF ASSISTANTS. FULL HOLIDAY ON SATURDAY. The position in connection with the employment of assistants in shops at Easter time appears to be that if they are called upon to work on Thursday night they must be given the full holiday on Saturday. In conversation with a Daily News reporter yesterday the Inspector in charge of the Labor Department at New Plymouth (Mr. W. J. Mountjoy) pointed out that last year's amendment to the Shops and Offices Act makes special provision for the day before Good Friday, section 2 (sub-section. 2), stating that shopkeepers may employ their assistants till 9 o’clock on the Thursday night, providing that they shall not work at all on Easter Saturday if their daily or weekly hours, as fixed by section 6 of .the principal Act, are exceeded. This section 6in its turn states that assistants must not be employed for more than nine hours per day, eleven on one day, during the week preceding. Inquiries have been made by a number of employers as to the position, and it seems that if employees are kept on duty on Thursday afternoon or evening* the firms have no option but to close on Saturday. In the case of some businesses, such as the grocery ’trade, the Act does not affect the position, as some of the industrial awards provide for a holiday on Easter Saturday. It is probable the Minister will be asked to amend the present law next session, but in the meantime if any shopkeeper employs his assistants, on Thursday flight before Good Friday without giving them a whole day off on Easter Saturday, it would appear that an offence has been committed.