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4.
(a) the agreed calendar;
(b) overtime arrangements during the
transitional period;
(c) embodiment of the calendar in
legislation.
If you could achieve an agreed calendar of
not more than four years covering the whole of the
transitional period required for the introduction
of a standard 48-hour week in all industries, you may
take it that this would be acceptable to Ministers, so
far as the time factor is concerned; although it would
naturally be preferred if this period could be
shortened. All this is, of course, very much tied up
with the second of the criteria mentioned above, the
question of overtime. On this, the absolute maximum
which would be acceptable to Ministers would be 300
hours per annum for the transitional period. Working
within this limit, it might help to fit in with the
phasing if the existing 26 week requirement on overtime
were suspended dueing the transitional period and this,
too, would be accepted by Ministers, provided that it
was clearly understood that this requirement and the
existing limits on overtime would be reintroduced at
the end of that period.
5.
As regards the third criteria, it would very great-
ly help in meeting presentational difficulties here if
the actual phased programme were embodied in legislation,
presumably in the relevant Regulations or Orders to be
made as soon as the recently introduced Bill to amend
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should be at least 5 haus
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NOTHING TO
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