Shop Assistants Early Closing Association

*THE WORKER*

Brisbane June 23, 1894

Early Closing.

A deputation from the Shop Assistants Early Closing Association, introduced by Labour Member Reid interviewed Premier Nelson on Tuesday, with a view of obtaining legislation next session of Parliament protecting shop assistants and others from long hours of labour. Mr. F. M'Donnell, the secretary of the association, put the case before the Premier excellently, pointing out how grocers' assistants worked an average from sixty-five to seventy hours per week; drapers, from fifty-three to fifty-four hours, and in some shops from sixty to seventy hours per week; and that shops in many instances were kept open very late at night, which was most unfair, not only to the male but to the female assistants also that worked in them.

The association had made every effort for the past five and a-half years to remedy this great evil in our midst, but, owing to the action of some shopkeepers, its efforts were unavailing here, the same as in all other places where an attempt was made to bring about shorter hours in similar occupations; and, as Mr. M'Donnell pointed out, it was found out by experiences that the only possible way to cope with the difficulty was for the legislature to assist the wage-earners by enacting such laws as would protect them from long hours. The matter had received favourable attention from the legislatures of the other provinces, and likewise in the British House of Commons.

He assured the Premier that the majority of the members of the present Parliament were pledged to support an Early Closing Bill when introduced there; and he now asked Mr. Nelson, as head of the Government, to bring one in. The Premier merely stated he sympathised with the object of the deputation and promised to look into the matter.