HOTEL WORKERS.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVIII, Issue 1063, 21 July 1910, Page 20

HOTEL WORKERS.

THE WELLINGTON COOKS AND WAITERS’ DISPUTE. AWARD OF THE ARBITRATIONCOURT. The Arbitration Court has issued its award in the dispute between the Wellington Amalgamated Society of Cooks and Waiters on the one hand and the Wellington Licensed Victuallers’ Association of Employers and local hotelkeepers on the other. The award, which includes sixty-one hotel keepers of Wellington, Hutt and Petone in its operation, was filed with the clerk of awards (Mr. A. Stubbs) on Saturday morning. The term during which the award shall operate is from August Ist, 1910, until August Ist, 1912. MINIMUM WAGES. The minimum weekly rates of pay are fixed as follows: — Kitchen —Where five or more hands are employed: chef, £4 10s; second, £2 15s; third, £1 7s 6d; others, £1 ss. Four hands: chef, £3 15s; second, £2 ss; others, £1 ss. Three hands: chef £3 10s; second, £2 2s 6d; others, £1 ss. Two hands: chef, £2 5s f second, £1 10s. One hand: male cook, £2; female cook, £1 10s. In hotels where females are employed in the kitchen or scullery, their wages shall be in the proportion of not less than three-fourths of the wages prescribed for male workers employed in a similar capacity, but so that any fem.J.e shall be paid not less than £1 per week. Dining room: waiters, 32s 6d; waitresses, 22s 6d; housemaids, 16s. Pantry: where more than one male is employed first hand, £1 10s; others, £1 ss. Only one male, £1 ss; females, £l. Porters: day, £1 ss; night, £1 7s 6d. General hands, £1 5s (lift boys and buttons are not genera 1 hands); barmen, £2 2s 6d; barmaids, £1 ss; billiard-marker, £1 10s; laundress, £1 ss.

PROBATIONERS. Employers shall be at liberty to employ, as waiters, male probationers for a period not exceeding twelve months, and, as waitresses, female probationers for not more than six months, in the proportion of one probationer to every three or fraction of three employees in receipt of not less than the specified minimum wage, at the following rates of pay; males, first six months, 15s per week; second six months, £1 per week; females, 10s per week. After serving probation these workers shall be paid the minimum wages under the award. Where board is not provided foiany worker covered by the award, such worker shall be paid 10s a week extra. Where lodging is not provided, 5s extra shall be paid, provided that if the employer offers to gain suitable lodging and the worker prefers to lodge elsewhere, the allowance shall not be paid.

A WEEK OF SIXTY-FIVE HOURS. A week’s work for all classes of hotel workers covered by the award shall not exceed sixty-five hours. Each employer shall be entitled to arrange the hours of work according to the requirements of his particular business, subject .to the following conditions: The hours for waiters shall not exceed eleven .7-hours’ work per day, and shall be, worked between the hours of 6 a.m. and 12 mid-night, as may be regulated by the employer-. The hours of cooks and kitchen hands shall not exceed eleven hours’ work per day, and shall bje worked between 5 a.m. and 9 p.m. Night or day porters, twelve hours. Pantrymen, eleven hours, between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m. Overtime styall be paid for work done in excess of ihese hours, but a week’s work shall not in any circumstance exceed seventy-five hours.

CASUAL WORKERS’ RATES. The minimum rates of pay for casual workers shall be: Kitchen Males: chef, first day, £l, two succeeding days, 15s per day, after third day ordinary wages; others, first day, 10s, two succeeding days 7s 6d per day, thereafter ordinary wages. Females: head cooks, first three days 10s per day, thereafter ordinary wages; other cooks, 7s 6d per day; waiters, first three days 10s per day, thereafter ordinary wages; waitresses 7s 6d per day; waiter employed for a single meal, not less than ss; pantrymen, first three days 7s 6d per day, thereafter ordinary wages; pantrymaids, not less than 7s 6d per day. Barmen, first three days 10s per day, . 1 rtueaiter ordinary .wages- Porters and general hands, first three days 7s 6d per day, thereafter ordinary wages.

On special occasions when the work is done away from the employer’s premises—at races, banquets, balls, outings—chefs, £1 per day; second cooks, 15s; other kitchen hands, 10s; waitresses, 7s 6d. Waiters and pan-

try men employed simply for the function shall be paid not less than 7s 6d, if employed three hours or less, and for any time exceeding three hours, 12s 6d. Waitresses and pantrymaids, similarly employed shall be paid 5s and 7s 6d respectively.

Wages shall be paid weekly unless otherwise agreed. Where no agreement in writing is made fixing the period of notice, then a notice of not less than forty-eight hours shall be given by either party of the termination of service Employers shall be entitled to keep in hand two days’ pay.

OVERTIME AND PREFERENCE. Workers receiving £1 10s per week or less shall be paid overtime at the rate of 9d per hour. Workers receiving more than £1 10s per week shall be paid for overtime at the rate of time and a half. Preference for unionists is provided for, except in the case of female workers.

In computing the number of persons employed, for award purposes, casual workers shall not be counted.

but an employer acting in the capacity of a worker affected by the award shall be counted as an employee.

The provisions as to hours of work and preference shall not apply to head waiters at the Royal Oak Hotel, Grand Hotel, Empire Hotel, and Hotel Cecil, when the head waiter acts as manager of the dining-room, nor shall the provisions apply to the chef in any hotel where three or more cooks are employed.

The award shall apply only to employers carrying on business as hotelkeepers within a radius of twentyfive miles from the Wellington Post Office. The award made on December 19th, 1907, is superseded only so far as it relates to hotelkeepers, and it shall still remain in force so far as it applies to workers in restaurants, tea rooms, and oyster saloons. If any legislative change is made in conditions fixed by the award, the award shall cease to operate, and thereafter, during the term of the award hours of work, wages, and other conditions shall be fixed by mutual agreement between individual employers and their employees.

THE UNION DISAPPOINTED. Mr. E. J. Carey, secretary of the Cooks and Waiters’ Union, who pleaded the cause of the ’union before u-e Arbitration Court, in Wellington, expresses himself extremely disappointed with the award. He points' out that the small rise of 2s 6d (frofm 25s to 27s 6d a week) in the wages of hotel-workers did not compare wicn the wages already agreed upon between parties to a similar dispute. It seemed to him that the Arbitration Court at present constituted a “dead end” for the workers, for with a first award the union reached its limit. The hotelkeepers had fought the battle of the Employers’ Association, while depending for their very existence on the votes of the workers. No union would go to the court, as at present constituted, for a fresh award. The court had refused to answer his question as to what was a living wage.