NOT FORGOTTEN

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22449, 19 June 1936, Page 8

NOT FORGOTTEN

DOMESTIC WORKERS QUESTION OF A UNION HELPFUL TO' GOVERNMENT [llY TELEGRAPH —SPECIAL REPORTER] WELLINGTON, Thursday Domestics have not been forgotten by thii Government in the provisions that have been made for better conditions for workers. This was made clear by the Minister of Labour, Hon. H. T. Armstrong, in an interview to-day when asked to comment on a Cliristehurch report that domestics there believed that special legislation would bo brought down by the Government to cover their situation. "It is true," said Mr. Armstrong, "that domestic servants and many other classes of workers were exempt from the legislation when it was decided to delete from the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Amendment 7Ji 11 the clause dealing with workers who were not employed for the pecuniary gain of the employers. I talked the matter over with the Government at the time, and it was sugcested that the clause should bf> 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 domestics and other employees who were eliminated. "In the meantime 1 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 domestics from forming unions, but probably if they had formed unions and applied for awards, the fact that they were not employed for pecuniary gajn would have ruled them out. I'or certain reasons, however, it has not been considered advisable in the meantime to bring domestics and others into the scope of the legislation, but I can say that it would no doubt be to the decided advantage of the domcsiics 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 from doing it."