COOKS AND WAITERS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 909, 31 August 1910, Page 11

COOKS AND WAITERS.

PROPOSED LEGISLATION. There ia now before tho Legislature nil amended Shops and Offices Bill'which deals with the hours and working conditions of employees in hotels and restaurants throughout New Zealand. In its. leading provisions thb Bill proposes to iii tho maximum working week at 60 hours for male, and 46 for female employees. Tho holiday provisions is extended so as to allow night porters in hotels a full holiday once' a fortnight. Awards are now in cxistenco in the four centres which provide for a 05 hours working week. The employers' associations throughout the Dominion have passed resolutions protesting against the provisions .of the Bill which they hold' over-ride the provisions of the ilwnrds. Tho unions, on tho other ./hand, according to Mr. E. J. Carey, secretary of- the Wellington Cooks' and Waiters' Union, while considering that tho- Bill does not go so far as they would like, agree that it is a stop forward. As against the expressed views ,of the employers they argue that the existing awards operate only within a limited sphere and affect only a small minority of tho workers concerned.. Except in the four centres, as stated, there is no legislative regula 7 tion of the hours of workers in tho hotel trade. The Bill, if it reaches the Statute Book, will, in the opinion of Mr. Carey, confer a boon and a blessing on a class'of workers hitherto legislatively unrecognised. j Tlio Labour Bills Committee of the House will shortly be taking evidence in connection with the Bill, and a special meeting of the Cooks' and Waiters' Union is to be held on Holiday evening next to arrange the compilation of evidence to be lind before the committee.

; In ' one- respect the union is placed in a somewhat peculiar position. . Clause 11 of the award under which it is now working, reads as follows:—"The provisions of this award shall continue in force until any change is mado by legislation in any of the conditions fixed by this award. On any such chango being made, all the foregoing provisions of this award shall cease to operate, and thereafter during the term of this award t'he following provisions shall bo in force:— 'Subject to any legislative provisions on the subjects, the hours of work, wages, and -other conditions of-work, of all workers coming within the scopo of this award shall be fixed' by agreement between each employer and tho individual workers employed by him.'" According to the union's interpretation of this clause-it involves that if the Bill now .under consideration is passed into law,, in Wellington for instance, all provisions of the award will lapse and there will be freedom of contract between employer- and employees for its remaining period of two years. Thus, if Parliament sees fit to amend the hours of labour of cooks and waiters these workers will be shut out from the benefits of the arbitration legislation until the term for which the award was mado has expired. Notwithstanding the. drastic naturn of this provision, Mr. Carpy is ot opinion that the workers aro very keen to secure a reduction of their present hours, which they consider excessive, especially in respect of the G5 hours' work per week demanded of female workers. Probably the evidence of the workers, he considered, would favour foregoing the award for the sake of benefiting by the proposed legislation. Parliament may possibly see fit to arrange that the provisions of tho Bill shall not operate until such time as tho award term has expired. Some of tho other unions, concluded Mr. Carey, contemplated asking for such a provision so as to prevent a conflict nnsine between tho award and tho proposed Statute. .