HOTEL HOURS

Press, Issue 29236, 21 June 1960, Page 14

HOTEL HOURS

Barmen Call For

Changes

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, June 20.

A special meeting of 557 Auckland barmen today supported the establishment of special mixed “sit-down” public lounges in hotels with licences from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. Hotel bars were left with skeleton staffs during the meeting. The meeting opposed any extension of the present “men only” public bar hours, which are from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., but urged the staggering of bar trading hours in farming and industrial districts where workers were on a shift basis, said the secretary of the Hotel, Hospital, and Restaurant Workers’ Union (Mr F. G Young) after the meeting. The 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. mixed lounges should be subject to special license and liable to cancellation.

Discussing what Mr Young called “impending legislation.” the men opposed the introduction of barmaids. Barmaids would take staff away from the female complements of hotels, which were short of staff, because of the higher wages. The meeting also agreed that the law imposing the responsibility on barmen for determining a minor’s age should be eliminated.