DOMESTIC SERVANTS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 20 June 1936, Page 7

DOMESTIC SERVANTS

LEGISLATION FORESHADOWED (United Press Association) WELLINGTON, This Day. Legislation to safeguard the working conditions and wages of domestic servants, and other employees who, in the meantime, have been excluded from recent enactments,- was forshadowed by the Minister of Labour (the Hon. H. T. Armstrong). “It is true,” said Mr Armstrong, “that domestic servants and many other classes of workers were exempted from the legislation when it was decided to delete from the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Amendment Bill the clause dealing .with workers who were not employed for pecuniary gain. I talked the matter over with the Government at the time, and it was suggested that the clause should be dropped then. But it was agreed that provision would have to be made in some other Act to safeguard the working conditions and the Wages of domestic servants and other employees who were eliminated in the meantime.

“I am not in a position to say what form this legislation will take,” said the Minister, “but I have been discussing it for some time with my colleagues and with officers of the Department of Labour. Incidentally, there never has been anything in the law of the country to prevent domestic servants from forming unions. But probably if they had formed unions and applied for awards the fact that they were not employed for the pecuniary gain of employers would have ! ruled them out.

“For certain reasons, however, it has not been considered advisable, in the meantime, to bring domestic servants and others into the scope of the legislation. But I can say that it would no doubt be to the decided advantage of the dcmcsiic servants to form a union, and it would even be more helpful to the Government than otherwise for them to do so. We do not intend to discourage them in doing that.”