I beg to move the Second Reading of this Bill. In the year 1920 an arrangement was come to as between the drapery trade and their assistants, that certain houses would close not later than half-past seven on Saturdays, and the general position of the trade was that the adoption of a rule like that prevented friction from arising at that time. The larger late-closing houses closed at half-past six on Saturdays, leaving the extra hour until half-past seven for the smaller houses to keep open. The agreements were very satisfactory until quite recently. However, after the agreement was come to, some of the very smaller houses broke the agreement and kept open until later hours, but the trade was not very much affected, and the breaking of the agreement by these smaller houses was ignored. Quite recently, however, a larger number of these small houses have begun to keep open after half-past seven on Saturdays, and the result has been that some of the larger houses that did close at half-past six informed their assistants that as a result of the late opening of the other houses round about them that they would have to keep open later on the Saturdays. The assistants have made it clear to those drapery houses that any change of the arrangement that at present exists would give rise to serious friction in the drapery trade again.
There is at present friction in the drapery trade. The assistants have made it quite clear that 6.30 and 7.30 for closing would give very reasonable facilities to the shopping portion of the community on Saturday evenings, and it would give those of the assistants who live near Dublin a reasonable opportunity of getting away from town and spending the Sunday in their own homes—a reasonable week-end rest. The proposal contained in the Bill is to give legislative effect to an arrangement that has apparently existed for the last four years and has given satisfaction both to the traders in the drapery trade and to the assistants. The Bill refers to the Shop Hours Act of 1912. That Act was a consolidation of previous legislation dealing with the regulation of the hours of certain houses. Among the things that it did was to give a weekly half-holiday, commencing not later than 1.30, to shop assistants. It also made obligatory the shutting of shops with certain exceptions, for a weekly half-holiday not later than one o'clock. It provided certain meal hours for the assistants, and certain authority was given to local bodies to regulate further the closing of houses. Under that Act I understand that the Dublin Corporation authorities issued an order which closed drapery houses not later than 7 o'clock on an ordinary week day and not later than ten o'clock on a Saturday. It actually took six years after the passing of the Shop Hours Act of 1912 to get that order made, so cumbersome is the machinery for arranging for a closing of this particular type in any trade. It is necessary to get two-thirds of the traders in a trade to agree to close at a particular hour, and a shop which has no assistants, which is run by members of the owner's family, has the same voting power as a shop like Clery's or Switzer's, or any other shop in the city, which might employ 100 or 150 assistants. So that there is no adequate machinery contained in the Shop Act of 1912 for dealing with a matter like this, and the members of the Merchant Drapers' Association and the representatives of the Distributive Workers' Association have come together and have discussed the problem that exists. They have come to the conclusion that very serious friction cannot be prevented in the drapery trade unless the agreement that was entered into four years ago is now actually put into the form of legislation, and this Bill proposes to do so for a period of five years. Three years was the original period, but that was amended in the Seanad.
Some idea of what is involved in the opposition to this Bill can be gathered from the fact that the Merchant Drapers' Association employs, I am told, about ninety per cent. of the drapers' assistants in the city—approximately 2,300; the other ten per cent. are employed by the smaller houses. I understand that a list of the smaller houses which oppose this measure has been circulated. It has to be borne in mind that there are three sets of drapers, as it were; you have the smaller drapers, who are represented by this list of 204, and then you have another body of drapers who, while not opposing this Bill, and while generally welcoming the regulation of the hours of the drapery trade in the city, do not belong to the Merchant Drapers' Association. This list is arranged in alphabetical order, and if you take the first twenty-six names in the A's and B's you will find fifteen houses which do not employ even one assistant, and the Bill, as it stands, exempts from the application of the closing order houses of that type. These facts will give some idea of the extent to which the drapery trade is in favour of this Bill and the type of opposition that there is to it. I desire to propose that the Bill be read a Second Time.
