FORTY-HOUR WEEK

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 June 1938, Page 8

FORTY-HOUR WEEK

ABANDONMENT NOT BEING CONSIDERED PRIME MINISTER DENIES REPORT (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. “They needn’t worry about that. There is no chance in the world of us abandoning the 40-hour week,” said the Prime Minister, the Rt Hon M, J. Savage, in an interview last evening, when his attention was directed to the following statement in a recent article by the Wellington correspondent of the “Sydney Morning Herald”: “The increasing pressure of imports may force the abandonment of the 40hour week. In fact, one of the three foremost members of the Cabinet has declared to your correspondent that the Government has made a mistake in bringing this into operation.” Referring to what is reported to have been said by “one of the three foremost members of the Cabinet,” Mr Savage stated: “No member of Cabinet has ever declared that view to me. Cabinet has been united and enthusiastic about the 40-hour week. I can hardly imagine that such a statement was ever made to anybody.” The same correspondent also referred to “the hole made in the workers’ incomes by the steadily mounting prices.” In reply to this, Mr Savage said: “Steadily mounting prices are not peculiar to New Zealand. It happens to, be the universal experience from one end of the world to the other today.”