H—ll

This table shows cleanly the heavy concentration of overtime in the main centres and Lower Hutt (where shortages of female labour are most acute), and also reveals the much longer hours worked by women in Wellington and Lower Hutt compared with other centres. (5) Overtime Work in Public Service. —The Factories Act, 1946, binds the Crown and Government factory employees are ensured the same minimum conditions that apply in other industry. In order to avoid anomalies and ensure that clerical and other workers in the Public Service are in no worse position than Government factory workers, the overtime provisions of the Act were applied administratively to the Public Service generally from Ist April, 1948. The Department gave advice and assistance to the Public Service Commission in working out the manner of application to the many different classes of employees. (6) Night Workers on Newspapers. —Sections 15 and 16 of the Statutes Amendment Act, 1948, amended section 32 (2) of the Factories Act, 1946-, by repealing the special definitions in the latter of the term " holidays " and " Sundays " in their application to daily morning newspapers, and replacing them by new definitions relating to all newspapers. The effect is to give night workers in newspaper-factories the benefit of the usual penal rates of pay for Sunday and holiday work. The amendment gave effect to an agreement between the New Zealand Newspapers Proprietors' Association and the New Zealand Printing and Related Trades' Industrial Union of Workers. (g) Outworkers' Licences (1) The shortage of female factory employees is also reflected in applications received for outworkers' licences, and there has been some comment by unions and others concerning the number of licences that have been issued by the Department. It is certainly true that there has been a tendency for some factories and retail shops to have a larger volume of work of certain kinds undertaken by people in their private*homes. However, the Department is carefully watching the position, and during the year, although the number issued showed a substantial increase, 55 applications were refused for various reasons. The licences issued in 1948-49 and comparisons with the two previous years are tabulated below :

" Other trades " include 10 licences for soap-wrapping at Lower Hutt, 23 licences for toymaking at Paeroa (a temporary arrangement as a result of a fire loss), and 16 for rubber goods at Christchurch. (2) The history of outworkers' legislation is fully dealt with in the 1947 annual report, which makes reference in addition to the legislative changes contained in the Factories Act, 1946. In the light of the last two years' experience in administering these provisions and of the present trends departmental procedure concerning the issue of outworkers' licences has been reviewed, and the following is an outline of the present practice.

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Number of Licences Issued in Trades Shown. District. Clothing. Fancy Goods. Footwear and LeatherOther Trades. Totals, 1948-49. Totals. 1946-47. Totals, 1947-48. work. Auckland 383 5 50 18 456 378 417 Lower Hutt 22 2 13 37 L 1 AC / 22 Wellington 223 5 228 > lUo \ 137 Christchurch .. 112 4 26 142 103 148 Dunedin 130 5 '2 137 17 33 All others 37 ' *8 29 74 23 27 Dominion 907 13 61 93 1,074 629 784