CONTROL PLAN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 April 1941, Page 6

CONTROL PLAN

FOR FOOTWEAR INDUSTRY COMMITTEE APPOINTED. WIDE RANGE OF DUTIES. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. The appointment of an industrial committee for the footwear industry, under the Industrial Efficiency Act, has been announced by Mr Sullivan (Minister of Industries and Commerce). Negotiations which have been taking place for some time between representatives of footwear manufacturers and the Bureau of Industry, with a view to the formulation and adoption of an industrial plan, as provided by the Act, were explained by the Minister. The committee is the first industrial committee appointed under the Act, in respect of a purely manufaiiluring industry. Members of the committee include five representatives of the licensees —Messrs E. G. Briclgens (Auckland), C. W. Coles (Auckland), J. A. East (Christchurch) and G. Z. Lindley (Dunedin). The representatives' of the employees are Messrs C. A. Watts (Auckland) and S. Ringrose (Dunedin). The nominees of the Government are Messrs L. J. McDonald, Wellington (Secretary of the New Zealand Standards Institute arid a member of the Bureau of Industry) and G. F. Grieve (Wellington—Labour Department). Mr Sullivan said it would be recalled that, at the request of the footwear manufacturers of the Dominion, submitted through the New Zealand Manufacturers’ Federation, he had declared the footwear manufacturing industry to be subject to the licensing provisions of the Industrial Efficiency Act in September, 1939. Since that date a considerable number of meetings with representatives of the industry had been held and towards the end of last year the final draft of the provisional industrial plan was formulated. Some of the matters on which the committee will be competent to make representations to the Bureau of Industry were as follows: —Granting or declining of applications for licences and conditions to which a licence should be subject, application-of efficient methods to production and distribution. the encouragement of scientific research and. if practicable, the institution of a research organisation within industry, the estafrlishrpent of a basis for equitable competition within the industry, the formulation of standard specifications, standard trade descriptions and definitions, a survey of the industry if desirable, formulation of uniform methods for cost accounting and the preparation of statistics, the development of facilities and schemes for training workers for employment in the industry and the formulation of methods for improving the environment and amenities of premises and for promoting schemes of social welfare in the industry.