The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1942-07-23
Overtime And The
War Effort
BY GRACE G. GLASCOTT

EDITORS NOTE-Because of the
vial interest of labor in the opera
tiOns of the Wage and Hour Law
(Fair Labor Stadards Act), espe
cially during the war time emer-
gency, has invited Grace G. Glas-
colt, Cleveland, Regional Director of
the Wage and Hour Division, L. s.
Department of Labor, to write
series of four articles for readers on
this important law. The first article
is presented herewith. Others will
follow.
No discussion of the Wage and Hour
Law technically the Fair Labor
Standards Act could be timely at
present without special mention of the
overtime provisions of the law which
recently have been the subject of wide
consideration
AS organized labor. of course, well
knows. the Law provides that covered
! workers be paid an overtime rate of at
least time and one-half their regular
rates of pay for each hour of work be-
yond 40 in IA single workweek The Law
| is as simple as that. But, from the
amount of distorted statements, half
truths, and apparently deliberate false
hoods, recently uttered and printed
about this provision of the Law, it
would seem that it is the cause of all
evils that may befall the American
people
| misunderstanding was Great e d
through reference to the overtime pro-
visions of the Law as the 40-hour
week" provisions. This, of course, is
deliberately misleading.
The overtime provisions of the Wage
Hour Law do not in any manner limit
the wOrkweek to 40 hours. And, as is
shown by recent survey by the Bu-
reau of Labor Statistics, L. S. Depart
ment of Labor vast majority of de-
fense plants have reached 12O-hOur
week basis which is enabling the oper-
alton of at least some ''bOttleneck" de-
partments on two or three shift plans.
1t is clear, therefore, that the Wage
and Hour Law does not stand in the
way of full utilization of the American
productive capacity. We all know that,
so far as war production is concerned,
it is essential that we utilize every bit
of plant capacity and equipment. The
ideal situation, of course, would be
operation of all plants on a 16S-hOur
| basis. However, in order to provide
production, four shifts of 40 hours
each, making possible 100 hours of
/ productivity out of the 1863 hours in Il
week, appears to he the most practical
ideal.
! And, the survey of the Bureau of
| Labor Statistics reveals, twO-fifthS of
the plants surveyed already were oper-
! ating for more than 100 hours a week.
! Three-q quarters of the plants were Oper-
ating some departments at least 12O
| hours Il week. All but 10 per cent were
operating more than 20 hours week
1t is Obvious then, that the over
time provisions of the Wage and Hour
! Law definitely are not impeding war
production. This leads to the question :
What about civilian goods produc
tion?"
Here, too, the record shows that
there is no productive difficulty caused
by the overtime provisions of the Law
Donald II. Davenport, of the Bureau
of Labor Statistics, summarizes this
situation as follows:
conservation of manpOwer through
general lengthening of the wOrllweek
is not likely to be necessary until 1943.
AS matter of fact, there will be Il
| pressing need in 1912 to find additional
employment opportunities for civilian
production in order to maintain the
| level of living at the highest possible
level. Men and women will be avail
able or can be made available in larg-
er numbers than they are likely to be
used.
The Bureau predicts the decline of
great number of workers in nonwar
production from the fourth quarter of
| 1871 to the fourth quarter of 1912. War
production, of course, is expected to
absorb these workers, but the absorp-
tiOn will not be immediate because of
the anticipated delay and adjustment