HIGHER STATUS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21547, 28 October 1944, Page 6

HIGHER STATUS

DOMESTIC SERVICE HOME FRONT SCHEME Efforts to raise the industrial status of domestic workers in New Zealand so far have produced only modest results. and it is now recognised that one of the prime reasons why girls object of taking domestic positions is the feeling that it marks them as rejects from other and better-paid avenues of employment. Many people believe that if the domestic servant were required to hold some form of qualification it would give her a pride in her work, and thus remove the social inferiority of employment in a home rather than in an office of factory.

This principle will be one of the basic planks in the platform of a new association, provisionally named the Home Front Association, first steps in connection with which will be taken at a meeting to be held in Gisborne on Monday. It is proposed that people who have work for domestic employees, and also those who are generally sympathetic towards the scheme, should finance a survey of the district’s requirements in the field, and organise to meet those requirements on the basis of careful training of suitable young girls and women. The prospective employees will have the protection of the Home Frcnt Association in respect of pay and conditions of employment, and also will have the opportunity to qualify as recognised skilled workers in their industry. One of the proposals directed towards qualification of domestic industrial workers is that girls leaving school may enter into apprenticeships with selected employers, and later select the particular avenue of domestic work which most appeals to them. These workers will not be restricted to employment in homes, it is hoped, for there are to-day many other openings some of which lead to substantially-paid positions. It is expected that the association will be able to play a substantial part in the rehabilitation of girls and women emerging from the armed forces as the war draws to its close. Another group for whom it will endeavour to cater will be the girls and women displaced from office and factory employment as men return from the services. Between these groups, there will be hundreds thrown on the labour market—people who have been earning good money and for whom there will be few openings outside the homes. It is expected that these people will welcome the assistance of the Home Front Association and its efforts to place them In circumstances where their self-respect will not suffer unnecessarily. Sponsor of the new movement is Mrs. R. P. Dymock, who for some time has interested herself in the problems of domestic employers and employees alike, and who recently has had the opportunity of discussing file new plan with many people well placed in Government departments, schools, and hosiptals, as well as with prospective employers of girls in the home atmosphere. The reactions to her suggestions has been almost wholly favourable, and Mrs. Dymock now has her plan ready for more general discussion.