The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-12-18

EusOm believed that both the Walsh- Heaiy act governing minimum working conditions on government contracts and the act governing wages and hours for in- dustry in general, put e ceiling over the 40-hour week. Nothing could be further from the fact. Administra- tors of both acts have Issued blanket regulations which went into effect with the two laws, specifying that unlimited overtime can be worked and unlimited shifts, too. No one has to write to Washington to get permission to put ' 24-hour-day operation in any plant. There are no legal restrictions to working Sum- days and holidays. The United States labor laws are iil no manner similar to those French laws which actually prohibited anyone work Ing more than 70 hours c week. They Ruinined Up French war production to such an extent that they contri- buted materially to the downfall of la belle Ropublique.
 Only real barrier to longer work days and weeks and multiple shifts Ia physical and psychological, not legal. As England found out after Dunklrk, there is c fatigue point beyond which q workers efficiency is SO impaired that It is unpFofitable to keep him on the job. Ills mistakes that must be scrapped during fatigue gre more costly than his production which can Dc uged Just where this fatigue point comes iS something industrial engineers differ on, but it'S in the neighborhood of 60 hours . week. More than q year ago, Eng. land found that longer work weeks were more destructive than produc. tive, and Labor Minister Bevin put the country back on the basic 4e- hours week, standard practice in Britain, with some overtime beyond that.
 WEEKEND BLACKOUT
 MUST BE LICKED
 Tn the United States, with q basic 40-hour week, there nave been varL- otiS suggestions for schedules to put the 24shour day, sevensday week Into practice. Steel companies chem. ieai industries, glass factories, rAyon mills, oil rofineries and similar plants in which continuous operation is essential have worked out this problem in different ways. There being i6s hours in . week, the four shift, 40-hour week schedule takes Up only i60 hours, and leaves on awkward eight hours to stagger in- to the schedule. Four 42-hour shifts would fill lip the week nicely, but aS this involves two hours Of over. time on each shift, 1t has not been generally adopted.
 Other difaeultieS encountered In fitting 40.hour shifts into the i99- hour week for continuous produce ton have been the premiums de- manded by labor in some industries for Saturday and Sunday work, the unWillingness to work on night shifts and the consequent unequal rates between day and night work. From the management standpoint, after the original headaches of set- ting up the ie8-hour week schedule have been cured, the advantages of continuous operation are manifold. however, iS one of the biggest pFob- leins to lick In putting the country's war industries on Q 100 per cent productive footing OPM Director William s. Knudsen has repeatedly called for the elimination Of this weekend blackout. Gen Philip B. Fleming. until recently wage and hour administrator but now Federal Works Agency administrator, has also urged that the weekend pen. alties Do eliminated leaving over. time pay to be calculated solely on the basis Of hours worked in excess of 10, regardless of when the over- time falls,
 L. Metcalsc walllng, admlnis- trator of the Division of Public Contracts In the Department of Labor, which handles the Walsh. Healy act, goes so far as to say that the overtime provisions Of existing labor legislation are really an incentive to multi-Shift opera tions in that they should tend to make employers put on more shifts just to avoid having to pay overtime wages.
 All such problems, however, may get a going over at the Forthcoming presidential conference of labor, management and public, which might be given the task of formula ting general policy on labor mat