GIRL LABOUR IN FACTORIES

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 193, 10 May 1924, Page 10

GIRL LABOUR IN FACTORIES

MASTER TAILORS’ PROTEST. A deputation from the Wellington Master Tailors’ Association of Employers, which waited on the Minister of Labour, cited an instance of 27 girls receiving £4l in wages for a week in a southern clothing factory, whereas men’s wages under the award would have cost, over £5OO. .It was stated that there was no limit to the number of apprentices in the wholesale clothing manufacturers’ award. The Minister said that ihe reason given him by the Apprentices Committee for the latter fact was that women did 1 not remain long in that trade, but got married or drifted into other occupations. Air. D. Milligan, who headed the deputation, said that few women married at an early age. and after the girls had spent some years in clothing factories, they were displaced by apprentices owing to whom there must be a large number of trained' adults out of work. The labour cost in a suit sold nt from £9 to £lO was £3 6s. The trouble was that tho clothing manufacturers preferred to be tailors, though they paid only a fourth or even a sixth of the amount tailors had to pay for’hand work. The Minister said he would make inquiries. What was aimed at was that tlie man in the street should get wha*he paid for. After hearing another member of tho deputation, the Minister said ho would have the matter investigated by the Crown Law Office, and so act that the Labour Department would seo that factories worked' under the award. Tho question of a brand was beintr considered.