DOMESTIC WORKERS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 50, 22 November 1917, Page 2

DOMESTIC WORKERS

PROBATIONARY TRAINING APPROVED. The decision of tlio Arbitration Court' in Auckland to embody in an industrial agreement a clauso providing a syatora of training for domestic workers has aroused a considerable amount of interest in Wellington. It has long been a ground for complaint by hotel-keep-ers, boardinghouso proprietors, and housewives that wliilo the wages demanded by female domestio workers have risen greatly, tho standard of skill has tended to decline. Domestic servants of any kind aro hard to find; thoroughly competent ones aro rare._ "There really is no standard of training or accomplishment among the domestic workers at the present time," said a Wellington hotolkeeper when tho matter was mentioned to him by a DOMINION reporter. "Girls may acquire some elementary knowledge in their homes—they soldom acquire very muoh, in my experience—and then they think that they aro eompotent servants, They expect to get full wages almost at ouco, and tho scarcity of help is so marked that employers often aro compelled to supply tho wages as woll as tlio training. The Auckland proposal looks to mo a good one. The girls will servo for two years as probationers with a graduated scale of wages, and during that time they will be required to attend technical classes and so acquire real knowledge of their work. Tho insistence upon training is moro important from our point of view than tbo wagos. The agreement endorsed by the Arbitration Court in Auckland appears to apply only to private hotels, but if it provos successful it is likely to be extended in its scope. "If Wellington women who employ lielp in their homes could securo an agreement of that kind if, would bo worth our while /reviving tho effort to crcato a strong Housewives' Union," said a lady yesterday. "Tlio relations between the girls and the mistresses aro not on a proper footing at all at tho present time. Wo have to tako almost any sort of help that we can get, and no definite standard of service exists. A girl would not think of demanding tlio wages of a competent dressmaker without first acquiring tlio nccessary training, but she thinks herself entitled to from 15s. to 20s. a week, ulus lier keop, in domestic service if she knows how to wash dishes and peel potatoes, I think I am speaking for a good many Wellington women when I say. tli.it if we could employ thoroughly capable young women. provided with some certificate of efficiency on which wo could relv, wo would even pay some increase in wages with light hearts."