H—ll

holidays, and to rectify this position these provisions were applied by the Government to the Public Service generally. This extension of the principles of the Act by administrative decision is comparable with the way in which the same principles have been extended by the Court of Arbitration in its awards to employments outside the scope of the Act. It is an instance of the great importance of this basic industrial statute. (b) Shops and Offices Act; 1921-22 (1) Material derived from the Department's Half-yearly Survey of Employment (covering employers of two or more persons) has been used in conjunction with the activities of Inspectors to arrive at this year's estimate of the number of shops and offices. In the absence of any registration procedure comparable to that under the Factories Act, however, it is only possible to make an estimate of the total numbers, and the following figures should be regarded accordingly :- — Shops with assistants .. .. .. .. .. 15,900 Number of assistants— Male .. .. .. .. .. .. 28,900 Female .. .. .. .. .. .. 30,000 Total .. .. .. .. .. 58,900 Shops without assistants .. .. .. .. 12,800 Offices .. .. .. .. .. .. 8,700 ■ Office-assistants — Male .. .. .. .. .. .. 11,000 Female .. .. .. .. .. .. 15,800 Total .. .. .. .. .. 26,800 (2) The Shops and Offices Act is an old and well-known measure and its administration rarely involves more than routine enforcement and advice. It is of interest, however, that the wide powers given to the Court of Arbitration by the 1945 Amendment to incorporate hours of opening and closing in awards and to require the closing of shops during the whole of one working-day have resulted in complete Saturday closing in a number of trades throughout the Dominion. An interesting legal action is pending which, it is hoped, will decide the question of whether overtime is payable under the Grocers' Assistants' award when assistants are worked on Saturdays, the occupier of the shop having obtained exemption from a Magistrate from the Saturdayclosing provision of the award. (3) The Department authorizes the working of overtime in shops, but it is provided in the Shops and Offices Act that overtime work in shops shall be limited to certain types of work not being the sale of goods— e.g., stocktaking. The intention to work overtime in hotels and restaurants must be notified to the Inspector of Factories. During the year overtime as follows has been worked :

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Total Hours of Overtime Number of Workers in respect of whom Overtime notified. notified. Males. Females. Total. 74,173| 1,944 2,703 4,647