The Forty-Hour Week— The 40-hour working week has been the
subject of prolonged and heated discussion between the workers', employers' and Government delegates at the Interna- tional Labour Conference, and has resulted in the adoption by the committee of a draft article approving the principle, and an invitation to Governments to promote agreements which would avoid wage reductions. This does not commit anybody to anything. The British Government has been in a difficult position throughout. The enforcement of a shorter working day without loss of wages would penalize the countries which pay the highest wages. But in addition to that, as Mr. Leggett pointed out, the proposal implies wage-fixing by the Government, and that cuts right across the British principle of free collective bargaining between groups of employers and trade-unionists. Moreover, it is economic- ally impracticable ; attempts to enforce it might mean the shutting down of whole industries. • The refusal of the employers even to sit on a committee to discuss the question is indefensible—particularly when a 40-hom: week is in full working operation in a country like the United States.
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