HOME-MADE OAKES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16470, 5 July 1921, Page 7

HOME-MADE OAKES.

HENRIETTA’S CAKE SHOP. DOES NOT COME UNDER AWARD. The Arbitration Court ha© dismissed an application by the Canterbury Operative Bakers’, Pastrycooks’ and Confectioners’ .Employees’ Union to join Miss H. H. Coombs, proprietress Henrietta’s Cake and Confectionery Shop, Colombo Street, to their award. Tho a plication was heard at the Christchurch sitting of the Court some months ago, and the Court reserved its decision. Its reasons for dismissing the application are given in an award in a similar case in Gisborne, where an application was made to add Miss Jessie Pollock, pastrycook, as a party to the Poverty Bay bakers’ and pastrycooks’ award. The Court stated that it was satisfied that Miss Pollock’s business was confined to the manufacture of home-made cakes and pastry and was distinguishable from that of an ordinary baker and pastrycook. Her methods were those of the domestic kitchen, and her goods were made from recipes used in private homes. Many of them were of a description not made by ordinary bakers at all, and others were made by different methods from those employed by bakers. Tho work was suitable for women, and the Court recognised that to join Miss Pollock as a party to the award would force her either to employ male labour or to employ female labour at the same rates as were prescribed for male labour, and, probablj r . would compel her to close her premises. She was not in competition with the ordinary bakers and pastrycooks, as her charges were higher, and she supplied customers who would not ordinarly purchase tho goods usually sold by bakers and pastrycooks, but would make their own cakes at home. It was apparent, however, that the businesses of a “ home made cake shop ’ Was becomiug increasingly popular in many parts of New Zealand, and it already had assumed such proportions that it should be regulated by an award. The present awards did not with the matter. The proprietors of most of the home made cake shops m Auckland were also proprietors of tea. rooms, and, though , bound by the bakers’ htvard, they also came under the tea rooms award, which made provision for a scale of wages for female pastrycooks, and^ Miss Pollock did not keep a tea room, and was not affected by the tea rooms’ award. The Court had decided that she should not- bo joined as a party to the present award, but it was prepared to consider an application for a supplementary award to cover home made cake shops, as it was of opinion that the present award was not designed to cover a business of that character.