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Irish Drapers' Assistants Association.
SATURDAY EARLY CLOSING MOVEMENT.
APPEAL TO THE SHOPPING PUBLIC.
The Drapery Employees of Dublin have for some time past been engaged in an attempt to reduce their working hours, which, in our opinion, are at present unnecessarily long. We take the liberty of submitting to you, in a concise form, the reasons which actuate us, in the hope of enlisting your sympathy and support.
Let us, at the beginning, state that we have no desire to injure the interests of our employers. We believe that a reasonable reduction in the hours of work all round can be injurious to none, but would, on the contrary, be most beneficial to all concerned.
A great number of Employers are in favour of the Assistant's demands, and are only restrained from granting them by the refusal of other Employers to fall into line.
THE PRESENT HOURS.
The closing hours at present are as follows, viz. :—The large, or what are considered the better class houses, close at 6 o'clock p.m., all the week round, most of the Grafton Street houses close at 4 o'clock p.m. on Saturdays. But this does not mean that work then ceases, as unpaid overtime, to the extent of two hours per day, is almost the general rule. In the medium and small houses, the closing hours are:—7 to 8 o'clock on five evenings of the week, and on Saturdays 10, 11, and 12 o'clock.
OUR REQUEST.
Our Request is that the large houses close at 2 o'clock p.m. on Saturdays, and that the medium and small houses close at 7 o'clock p.m.
This we consider would be a reasonable and an equitable arrangement.
We do not believe that our request would entail any inconvenience to the public. In the case of the wealthy and leisured classes it is of course because of want of thought that they make their purchases on Saturday afternoons. The case of the working-man paid on Friday or Saturday is different, and the 7 o'clock closing will give him ample time to make all necessary purchases.
The atmosphere of a Drapery Establishment is close and confined, the tension on the minds of those engaged therein is most severe, and it is unnecessary for us to point out that working long hours under such conditions has a most detrimental effect physically, mentally, and morally on those concerned.
About forty per cent. of the Drapery Employees of Dublin are girls and young women, and in the shops which remain open till a late hour on Saturday night over 80 per cent. of the Employees are females, many of whom have to traverse long distances—in some cases three or four miles—to their homes unprotected at these unseasonable hours.
As a result of these long hours and the ill-health which they give rise to, the amount of benefits paid for Sick Claims to the members of our Association is nearly double the amount of similar benefits paid in any other Society.
We are never without cases in the Consumptive Sanatoriums, and numbers of our body are constantly recommended by their Medical Advisers to seek health in other countries, a recommendation which many find it impossible to carry out.
It is on the above grounds that we appeal to you for your co-operation, and by your action and influence to aid us in obtaining what is surely a very moderate demand. It is within your power to bring more happiness than you can imagine into thousands of lives, to give a chance of health to hundreds of growing boys and girls, and to give to all of us, especially to the women amongst us, the privilege of sharing in the home life, which is surely the right of every human creature.