Union curb on women stewards ruled illegal

Press, 21 March 1983, Page 2

Union curb on women stewards ruled illegal

PA Wellington The Cooks and Stewards’ Union is illegally preventing women stewards from being employed on ocean-going ships, the Human Rights Commission has ruled. The commission, in a decision given last evening, also said that ship owners were breaking the law by accepting the practice. The ruling follows up a complaint in January, 1981, from a stewardess member of the Cooks and Stewards’ Union, backed by 12 of the other 18 female union members, who considered they were not getting equal opportunity with male counterparts because of their sex. The 19 stewardesses now worked exclusively on the inter-island ferries, and were not eligible because of union classification to be on the stewards’ roster for

ocean-going vacancies, said the commission. The commission therefore held the union responsible for the exclusion of women from ocean-going stewards’ jobs. It noted that shipping companies already had women radio operators and cadets, but that while the employers had no choice in what stewards were put up for vacancies, they knowingly accepted the system. Only one New Zealand ship still in use had double sleeping berths and shared ablution facilities, the commission said. Eleven ships had single-berth cabins and shared facilities, and 12 had

single berths with their own

bathrooms, said the report. It rejected a union suggestion that to allow women on the, ocean-going roster would disadvantage male stewards, and noted that at present only five ■ stewardesses were interested in such jobs. The commission said that the Federated Cooks and Stewards’ Union was in breach of the Human Rights Commission Act by refusing to allow women to be included in the “steward” category, and by not offering female members the same terms of union membership as male members. Ship owners were in breach of the same act by accepting the practice.