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EMPLOYMENT
The restriction of hours of work for women, introduced on 1st January 1959, has increasingly affected the hours of work for men employed in the same industrial process. During 1959, 81 cotton spinning, cotton weaving, and silk spinning mills introduced a system of three eight-hour shifts. More factories changed over to this system in 1960 and by the end of the year the total had risen to 97. This included 24 cotton spinning, 57 cotton weaving and 16 other factories. It was estimated that by the end of 1960 19,225 men and 13,111 women were working eight hours a day.
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Rest periods varying between half an hour and three hours a day are often given, especially when hours exceed eight a day, and an average rest period of one hour a day is given throughout industry generally. The weekly rest, when given, is usually Sunday, except where continuous production must be arranged, when a rest day is granted by rotation. Rest days are usually unpaid. Many male industrial workers do not enjoy a rest day but it is customary to grant unpaid leave on request.
Retail Price Index. The Commerce and Industry Department compiles and publishes a monthly Retail Price Index. It covers a wide range of items found in the normal budget of both industrial and white-collar workers, on the basis of a survey carried out in 1948. A base of 100 for March 1947 is used.
The index continued to remain remarkably steady as in previous years. Compared with the exceptionally high average monthly figure of 126 for 1959, it fell to a more usual figure of 121 in 1960.
When introducing new scales of pay in 1960, Government aban- doned the system of variable cost of living allowances based on the index, except in respect of lower-paid grades, and as a result of wage negotiations in various sections of industry and commerce, other organizations also abandoned similar systems. Consequently, although some businesses still follow the scales of cost of living allowances published monthly by the Labour Department, the importance of the index in determining a variable portion of wages has grown considerably less.
LABOUR ADMINISTRATION
The two main departments which deal with Government's responsibilities in labour matters are the Labour Department and the Registry of Trade Unions.