POLICEMAN’S LOT

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20950, 1 November 1939, Page 9

POLICEMAN’S LOT

HOURS AND RETIRING AGE CONFERENCE DISCUSSIONS (By Telefrrapil.—Press ftssuclatfoni WELLINGTON, Tuesday Two of the important matters affecting the police themselves discussed at the Police Association conference were the questions of hours and the age of retirement. The working week at present consists of six days, totalling 48 hours, but there are instances where the reduction to this condition has not yet been made effective. The conference decided to seek to consolidate the 48-hour week and make it fully operative. With regard to retirement, a determined effort is to be made to have the age limit reduced to 60. It is regarded as an anomaly that the rule of most State departments of retirement after forty years’ service does 'not apply to the police. Earlier retirement than exists is regarded as the first essential to obtaining a younger police force, which the delegates thought was needed in the interests both of the men themselves and the public. The problem of housing was also revealed as part of the “policeman’s unhappy lot,” and a proposal urging that more houses should be erected by the Government for the Department is to be submitted to the authorities.