PRIVATE HOTEL MEALS

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 45, 17 November 1936, Page 10

PRIVATE HOTEL MEALS

So Far, No “Black Friday” In Wellington REFERENCE IN COURT There is little likelihood of Wellington private hotel proprietors emulating the action taken by Auckland houses in asking their guests to obtain Friday’s dinner in town as the only alternative to a raised tariff. The report from Auckland was referred to in the Arbitration Court yesterday by Mr. W. J. Mountjoy, secretary, of the Wellington Private Hotel Proprietors’ Association, and Mr, Vi. E. Anderson, of Auckland, who represented the employers at the bearing of the private hotel workers’ industrial dispute. In his address to the court Mr. Mountjoy spoke of the “undesirable and unsatisfactory experiments” which had been designed by some proprietors to avoid employing extra staff. He declared he would do ail in his power to prevent such action in Wellington. Mr. Anderson gave detailed information about tlie situation , in Auckland. He said “Royal Court, ’ a private hotel, had cut out morning and afternoon tea and was serving no meal on Friday evenings; “Lumeah” would in future give no meal service after 1 p.m. on Fridays; and “Gleneagles,” a private hotel with 42 rooms,_ was serving no midday meals and limiting its clientele to permanent guests who had the midday meal in town. Another innovation was to serve tea on Sundays without waitresses, the meal being fully prepared beforehand. Asked yesterday by “The Dominion” whether any similar action was contemplated by Wellington employers, the proprietor of one of the city’s largest private hotels eaid that such a move would be inconsistent with the claim of an hotel to serve the public. It would be an absurd position, for instance, if a guest who came straight from a boat or a train were told he could not be given dinner because it was the waitresses’ night off. It was questionable whether the report from Auckland referred to any of the larger houses there. On the other hand, there was no minimising the seriousness of the problem from the employers’ viewpoint, he said. The only way to arrange a day and a half off each week for the waitresses was to increase the staff, and this had been done in most of the large establishments. But the increased burden of costs was overwhelming, and could not be met even by raising tariffs. “Any action whereby a less efficient service would be given to the public is out of the question,” be added.

Another proprietor said he had met the situation by increasing the staff and raising the tariff. Two or three waitresses off on any afternoon meant too big an interference with the usual dining-room service, and substitutes (must be provided. In his opinion the Auckland scheme had a good deal in its favour, but he did not think a similar move would be made by the Wellington proprietors.

A third employer said he was having no difficulty in arranging the time off required by the Shops and Offices Act. which prescribed tbe conditions of work for waitresses in private hotels. The girls commenced work three-quar-ters of an hour later each morning, and thus made up the extra half-day.

The workers have asked the Arbitration Court for a 40-hour week, which if granted will mean still further time oft for the waitresses. The employers are therefore awaiting the decision with considerable interest, and, according to some who were seen yesterday, no little apprehension.