New Regulations Issued

Bsi Labour

A COMPREHENSIVE set of Native Labour Regulations, running to 107 clauses, to cover generally the em ployment of natives in the British Solo mon Islands, was published in the West ern Pacific High Commission Gazette of August 1.

There is nothing of a startling charac ter in the Regulations. Compared with the revolutionary compilation which Aus tralia brought into operation, next door, in New Guinea, they are mild. But they do seem to wrap a lot of unnecessary red tape around the simple employer-native labourer relationship which existed in BSI prior to 1940.

Recruiters will in future be licensed; and no man may recruit “on spec”— he must operate for a recognised em ployer. No native under 18 may be re cruited. Government officials—who exer cise a great dbal of power under these regulations—will not permit recruiting in any district unless they are satisfied that the removal of the young men will not harm the community.

Employers generally are obliged to pro vide their native employees with rations, housing, medical care, and so forth, on a prescribed scale; but it is left to the Resident Commissioner to make rules governing the rates of wages, the periods for which contracts of service may be entered into, the scale of rations, char acter of housing, repatriation, etc.—that is, most of the things that really matter in relation to native labour.

If a native works more than nine hours in any one day, or more than 50 hours in any week, he must be paid overtime rates. Normally, he must not work on Saturday afternoon, Sunday, or public holidays.