DOMESTIC AID

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22949, 29 January 1938, Page 12

DOMESTIC AID

SHORTAGE OF WORKERS OTHER AVENUES PREFERRED CONTRAST OF CONDITIONS The shortage of domestic workers continues to be acute, according to reports received from several of the chief employment bureaux in Auckland. "If it were not for applications for domestic positions in hotels and institutions, this office would have to close down," said one agent. "I have been trying in vain for weeks to obtain a cook for an excellent home at- a wage j of £2 a week," said another. It is widely agreed that there is no immediate prospect of improvement in the situation. Proprietors of registry offices said the shortage was due to the unfavourable contrast between the conditions of employment for domestics and those for other classes of female workers. "What housemaid starting at 7 a.m. and finishing at 8 p.m. on an average day, and getting a half-day off a week and every alternate Sunday, does not envy the hotel waitress who gets two full days off a week and every afternoon free, as well as higher wages P" remarked one agent. Factory girls, shop assistants, hotel employees and practically all other female workers except domestics could join tramping clubs, sports clubs and cultural societies, said another man. It was therefore not surprising if New Zealand girls were not attracted by the conditions of work in private houses.

The fact that domestics were protected by no union was also advanced as a reason why many were unwilling to take up work in private houses. They felt that in the matter of hours, wages and holidays they were too dependent' on the will of the employer. It was pointed out that, whereas charwomen were guaranteed by their union rules a wage of Is 3d an hour or 10s a day, domestics doing the same work could not command a comparable wage.