111

I.—9a.

HON. J. BARR.]

4. Mr. Him/marsh.] Line 35, page 16, the word "fixed" —"in each week fixed for the half or whole holiday"—the word "fixed" ought to come out, ought it not? You see the boss can fix the holiday any time he likes; that looks as if it was fixed beforehand?—l do not think there is very much in that. We would like to see it this way : that it is fixed weekly. 5. There is nothing in the Act like that?—We want it in the Act, and we think this clause ought to be amended in this direction. At the present moment the employee may think his holiday will be on Tuesday and he may have made arrangements accordingly; at the last moment the employer comes along and tells him he is to have another day. There should be some provision whereby the employer must fix it. It ought to be provided for. He can change it at any moment; there is nothing to prevent that. 6. It looks as if there is some way in which it was to be fixed? —Well, I hope attention will be drawn to that. In regard to section 31: I presume that will be altered. I cannot understand 31 at all; Ido not understand what section 31 means. I presume that you will put it in like clause 11 of the 1910 Amendment. 7. Mr. Chairman, I think we should have that Act here before us?— Taking into consideration that you are making the Act to come into force in 1914, which would not affect anything at all, the tiling is unmeaning. There is another matter I would like to draw attention to. It is not contained anywhere, and that is my trouble. Clause 37 deals with the sanitation of shops and offices. Now, I have had during the last four or five years a number of complaints from employees in hotels about the unsuitability and insanitary conditions of sleeping-accommoda-tion. The Factory Inspector can do nothing with it. One case I have in mind just at the moment. There is one hotel where the male employees sleep in an outhouse with a public urinal up against the back of it, and the smell permeates all the bedrooms. Some of them rather than sleep there have taken lodgings elsewhere. Time and again employees have taken a job and when they found out about the sleeping-accommodation left at the week's end. We could not do anything; the Health Officer, so far as he was concerned, could not condemn the thing—at any rate, he did not condemn it, although none could be got to sleep there. We submit that, seeing you are making them shop-assistants, and providing provision for sanitary accommodation, and provision for air-space, surely it is reasonable to ask that provision should be made for sleepingaccommodation. I do not suggest what provision, a? I know you have other Acts dealing with that, and those in charge of the Bill—the Government —can very well add these provisions relative to sleeping-accommodation which will be in the interests of the employees and of the general public. I would like that that be taken into consideration, because it has been a source of considerable annoyance and hardship. I would, however, like it clearly understood that it is not the rule that bad accommodation is supplied to employees; it is not the rule, but unfortunately there are a number of exceptions. 8. The Chairman.] Do you not think it is a case for the municipal authorities? —You provide for sanitation for the shops, you provide in other industries that certain sleeping-accommodation shall be provided : it is a fair thing to ask that those employees, who are often put into an outhouse or a detached building, that the accommodation of that building should be sanitary from every point of view, both as regards air-space and as regards the nature of the buildings and of its surroundings. 9. Do you not think, in dealing with the question of signing the record, that you would get over the alleged dishonesty on the part of the employer if you had the amount stated in words instead of in figures?—l would not like to say that you would get over the difficulty thus, but it would minimize the evil and it would be a valuable addition. 10. I do not like this idea that all employers are capable of fraud. I do not think the employers generally want to play tricks like that on the employees, and I think in these days of free secondary education there is no reason to nurse people, and surely it is a reasonable thing that they should be expected to see what they are signing, and there is no reason why they should not have a fellow-employee to witness their signature?— There is no provision for that. 11. Mr. Carey.] .This section 29 is not a new section, as indicated by the line?— No. 12. Then it goes back to the old section of the Bill which permits the holiday being lost and given the next week or during the rest of the week. In Christchurch it is working very satisfactorily?—Oh, yes. 13. It has prevented the preceding section being availed of —the fact of section 29 allowing hotelkeepers in Christchurch to miss the holiday in that week has prevented them taking advantage of the accumulated-holiday section?— Very few have taken advantage of the accumulatedholiday section. 14. That section that you suggested, notwithstanding the section of the old Act, that would still mean that the Arbitration Court could, before this Bill came into operation, make an award. An award could be made between now and April, 1914, and this award would carry on for three years, and the union covered by this award would be denied the benefits of the Bill?— That is so, and we would have to safeguard that, for this reason : that employers who wanted to defeat the provisions of this award might bring the employees before the Conciliation Council by way of dispute and force the hand of the unions. That might be done, and it is always best for us to make sure of our ground, and it might be wise to make provision for that. 15. There is seven months of an interim in which an Arbitration Court could make an award? —Yes. 16. Mr. Glover.] There is one question in connection with what Mr. Carey has said : what award is in force at the present time? —The Canterbury agreement is now in force, and goes out about April. It does not affect me. The Wellington people have no award; at the present moment the Auckland award does not exist. Should this Act come into force, say, in six weeks'