In the mid-1970s unions began a campaign to achieve reduced working
hours. A central plank in this campaign was that it would create em
ployinent. A decade later it becomes possible to examine the economic
impact of that campaign. This paper reports some of the findings of a
study recently undertaken with financial support from the Reserve Bank.
The results obtained suggest that no general relationship existed between
working time changes and employment levels but rather varied between
industries. The potentially divisive issue of the funding of work-time changes
is also examined. The results should be of interest to practitioners in the
field of labour force management.
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