GIRLS WORKING AT NIGHT

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23699, 25 July 1942, Page 4

GIRLS WORKING AT NIGHT

SERVING IN MILK BARS EXTRA HALF-HOUR WANTED BY EMPLOYERS Officials of the Christchurch LfeboUf Department visited milk bdfS Ifl thj city on Thursday eVemrtg to See j| girls Were working after the hour 10.30 p.m., at which their employment legal? ly terminated It Is UridefStood thfil prosecutions are pending. Employers stated yesterday that tߧ rush hour after the closing of the pi|* ture theatres at night made demanqi that could ,0nly ( be met by fl full StSff. They said that it was impossible to |§t men to take the place of girls for the busy hour of half-hour from 10.30 p.ffi. onwards. “Elderly m6h who have no military obligations do not want to do a nigfit job such as serving milk shakes; and, besides, they would not be quiCK enough at it” said one employer. ‘lt is no use getting youths, because they are too quickly taken away into tHC forces. The girls don’t mind workirtg. an extra half-hour at overtime rates, and it does not make much difference to them whether they stop at 10.30 or 11 p.m. The Government is weil behind the times if it thinks girls should all be in their homes by 10.30, or want to be home by that time. Actually, I think they are a great deal betterworking in the milk bars than wandering about the streets.” . An employer claimed that as milk bars had been declared an essential industry, it was ridiculous to quibble about working the giris employed in them for ah extra half-hour at nights if Suitable rates of pay were agreed upon. Women employed ih r|ilw|y work were working late, he s&ia, ana if it was all right for them to work till 11 omock at night, then it SfioUld be all right for milk bar employees to x do the same. . Mr H. F. Rutland, secretary of the Canterbury Employers’ Association, said that the matted. waS being discussed by employers’ and umoh representatives,