May Have

P-NG Public Servants May Have Longer Week

PUBLIC servants in Port Moresby, Rabaul and Lae, NG, may lose the 5-day week they have enjoyed since 1955, if an applica tion by the Administration is granted.

In their application for rescission of the five-day working week for Administration officers, lodged with the Registrar of the P-NG Supreme Court on December 18, Brigadier D. M. Cleland, and the Public Service Commissioner, have pointed out that the primary consideration of the Administration must be the welfare of the natives.

In support of the application, they have placed before the Public Service Arbitrator the following reasons why the present five-day working week affects the native population, who at present work a five-and-a-half-day week: • Natives employed by the Administration have requested a five-day working week, and regard their retention on the former working hours as unjustifiable discrimination. • If natives employed by the Administration were given a five day week then the area of dis content would be shifted to natives employed by private enterprise, i.e., business firms, plantations, etc., and the situation aggravated still further.

It is an accepted industrial principle that the arrangement of working hours for employees is a matter for determination by the employing authority.

Other considerations are the additional cost to the Administra tion, and the effect of a five-day week on the business community and the general public.

The 5-day week was introduced in 1955 for a trial period. The ruling did not apply to native employees, who have continued to work a si-day week.