* * * * Hours of Industrial Employment Last Saturday
the text of the Government's Hours of Industrial Employment Bill was issued. Labour has not found it by any means plain sailing to redeem the promise of ratification of the Washington Hours Convention. That. is what the Bill stands for. It provides for the statutory eight-hour day, and/or forty-eight hours week, with special provisions for overtime. It does not, of course, cover home-workers, clerical workers, family businesses, persons employed at sea, or in agri- culture or in coal mines. The powerful Miners' Federation have seen to it that the Bill shall not affect " shorter hours or higher rates of wages secured by custom or agreement." There will still be opposition from the inveterate champions of laissez-faire. There will still be pointless talk about "rigid statutory regulations" being unnecessary. where ,92 per, cent. of the workers do, in fact, work an eight-hours day. Most people, however, are coming to understand that men are not satisfied with " facts ". when they claim " rights."
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