The second reading of the Shops Bill—the fourth edition of
the Bill originally published by Lord Gladstone—was moved by Mr. Masterman in the Commons on Friday week. The essential feature of the Bill is the limitation of the hours of shop assistants to sixty hours a week, exclusive of meal times. Within that limit shopkeepers would be left free to employ their assistants at any hours they like. The Government also propose to permit a certain amount of overtime under some system of factory regulation, and an extension of the per- mission where a shop assistant was given a week or fortnight's holiday with full pay. The Bill was on the whole favourably received, but in the course of the debate it was pointed out that it was opposed by the Lord's Day Observance Society, and it was adversely criticised on the grounds of further multiplying officials, of interfering with the hours of adult male labour, and of extending preference to a special class of workers. Both Mr. Masterman and Mr. Churchill were careful not to claim finality for the measure in its present form. While freely admitting that the present conditions under which shop assistants work are often most unsatisfac- tory, we greatly doubt whether this new application of the principle of State intervention will mend matters. The working of the Eight Hours Bill is certainly of evil augury. As one of the speakers truly observed, instead of satisfying everybody, it has set everybody by the ears.
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