The Forty-Hour Week at the I.L.O.
The forty-hour week for all nations, desirable as it appears in the abstract, is in the concrete full of difficul- ties which time may overcome ; but if it is ever to do so, one preliminary point must be squarely faced, which the International Labour Office drafts have shirked. There must be a provision, as watertight as can be devised, to ensure that reduction of hours either universally is, or universally is not, accompanied by reduction of wages: Otherwise what will inevitably happen will be that in low-wage countries with weak trade unionism wages will be reduced, while in high-wage countries, where trade unionism is strong, they will not be. The result will be that the low-wage countries will undercut high-wage countries, like ourselves, even more seriously than at present, and the whole tendency will be to bring down standards of living everywhere. Until a way is found to circumvent this, the British Government can only eon-- tinue, as it has, to walk very warily in the matter at Geneva.
* * * *
Previous page
