HOTEL AND RESTAURANT EMPLOYERS' ASSOCIATION.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 145, 21 June 1899, Page 2

HOTEL AND RESTAURANT EMPLOYERS' ASSOCIATION.

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—ln reference to this Association, just being formed, I beg respectfully to state that we don't want to make war with the hotel employers; on the contrary, we want peace, good-will, and fair dealings on both sides. Everyone knows that there must be large profits made In hotels, when we consider the enormous sums of money that change hands so often even after a proprietor's short stay at an hotel; so that we as their toilers only look for fair treatment from them in the future. I have been employed in some of the best hotels in the Old Country, and I have also been employed in a good many first-class hotels in these colonies for the past 18 years, so that I can speak from experience, and I can honestly say without fear of contradiction that there are no class of workers so badly treated as the hotel and restaurant employees in every part of New Zealand, more especially in first-class hotels In our cities. The men are worked like horses and treated like dogs. In the majority of the first class hotels In New Zealand there is no such room as a servants' dining-room or sit-ting-room of any kind, and the sleeping accommodation is simply disgraceful. In some cases there are five or six men, waiters, barmen, and porters, packed like sardines in a small, unhealthy space not fit for human habitation at all, with no one to clean or tidy the place, and no time to do so themselves. I may state that the same thing applies to our female workers. We have to work very hard from 14 to IS hours a day, Sundays included, in a very stuffy atmosphere. Home comforts are unknown amongst hotel servants. I may state that some of the second-class hotels are not quite so bad, as some have better sleeping accommodation for servants. In a majority of the large first-class hotels in the busiest time of the year they keep only three waiters in some, and four in others,where there really is plenty of work for five or six waiters. The same thing applies to cooks, housemaids, and waitresses. In the case of night porters they have to be on duty all night and work hard too, and In most hotels they have to work up to 12 or 1 o'clock every day. We have an association now with two female workers on our committee. I sincerely hope that all hotel employees (male and female) will come along to our next general meeting, which will take place soon, and help us to help each other to better our position.—l am, etc.,

EDWAED O'BKIEN.