DOMESTIC WORKERS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 74, 21 December 1918, Page 8

DOMESTIC WORKERS

\ THE CONTINUAL' SHORTAGE

COMMUNAL KITCHENS SUGGESTED

The shortage of domestic workers is onp of tho matters discussed in the annual report of the Department of Labour, read before Parliament during tho recait session. Tho report records it continued decrease in the number of engagements of domestic servants, and it states the reason for this decrease in a sentence: "The impossibility of securing girls for. this work in anything like sutlicient number to meet the great demand." The war has accentuated the difficulty, since it has opened new avenues of employment for girls in many directions, lint the problem will not bo served by tho termination of tho war. There are not enough domestic workers in jN 7 ew Zealand to go round under present conditions, and increases of wages, within the limits imposed by the income of the average home, do not seem to increase the supply to any material extent.

■ The Common Kitchen. "A suggestion by way of solution," says the report of the Labour Department, "is the establishment of communal kitchens in some of tho chief centres of Die Dominion, which would, if some enterprising business people would take tho matter up, certainly prove advantageous to many classes of the community, as has been recently shown by the institution of communal kitchens in England as well as in other countries. It would surely be more economical in both money, and timo if the food required by, say, a hundred families residing in close proximity to one another were bought and prepared in one operation by means of tho wholesale purchase of supplies instead of retail, of the use of one or two fires and other cooking appliances and utensils instead of a hundred of each of them, besides the saving in labour entailed, and so forth. This suggestion does not include communal dining-rooms, to which there would naturally bo uiuch objection. The cooked meals could be delivered in heatretaining vessels. Many housewives would be enabled to carry out their housework without regular domestic help if even the daily dinner could be thus obtained, as tho preparation of this meal and the cleaning up afterwards take up the time of one porsoir for about three hours a day-time which many mothers with two or'three-young children can ill afford. "Many "people probably do not realiso that tho total cost of a general servant, which is .£1 10s. a week or more, including her board and lodging, would pay 8 per cent, per annum on about ;£looo\ so that if a nrjnber of householders residing in one neighbourhood were to combine in such an undertaking by taking up a few shares each, the expenditure of the few pounds involved would soon repay tho outlay. In these kitchens, too, a proper trainini» in the art of cooking 'could be acquired. Surely a seientihe knowledge of this subject is nearly as important, iu tho interests of general health, as that required by such a profession as that of. say, a chemist. Tho status of the employees would be raised, they would be employed under proper conditions, and the stigma attached to the name of 'general servant , would (so far as they are concerned at all events) be removed."

Housewives' Vißws. Wellington housewives, at any rate, are not disposed to regard this suggestion as immediately practicable. " 1 cannot see that communal kitcluns would solve the problem," said one lady yesterday. ".For one thing, wo have not reached the stago where a hundred families in the same neighbourhood can be induced to take the same meal. That sort of thing has been done in tho United Kingdom under stress of war condition?, })iit I am inclined to believe (hat the system will not be retained there when the war is over and supplies- cf foodstuffs, arp oblainabio in tho ordinary wny. I bclieyo that our towns have, got to be built in a better fashion before wo can have communal kitchens. The.ro was a proposal for reform on these lines in ono of the Bills brought before Parliament last session, but the members of the Government or somebody had it dropped. Perlyips they were, right. We wmnot go far ahead of public opinion in these mutters. "My owu, opinion, which I believe will be. endorsed by very many of the women in ehargo of homes, is tiiat the rooking of the meals is not the big problem. There are many ways nowadays of simplifying the operations of cooking. The woman wlio fiices real hardship under present conditions is the mother of several young children, and 1 believe that her trouble is not f.o much the work placed upon her shonldeiw as (he Jack of relaxation. She needs 'help in order that shu may have some hours of the day to call her own; thut is to say, sumo hours when she may leave the house and Ireat herself to a. walk, a call, a visit to shops or the pictures. .Many a woman* would do the remainder of Ihe household work without injury to her health or happiness if sho wore relieved of washing and rough cleaning. Would it not be possible to have an arrangement by which companies, or even municipalities, would provide competent domestic workers for an .hour or two daily at minimum cost?"

Domestic Organisation. Tho point aaised by this lady is touched in the report of the Labour Department. "An interesting suggestion emanating from London," says the report, "is that, except in those cases where tho housewife still wishes to employ her own servants (and is able to do to), the domestic workers in a city or town should be employed by a company or syndicate under proper wages and other conditions, to be, fixed by a committee representing tho employers and the servants. The company .would then send the servants to the houses applying for such help by the hour, day, or week, as required, or to perform tho particular work to bo done, charging the householder for the services rendered. All instructions, complaints, etc., would bo made between the householder and the manager of the com. pany. It is urged, in reply to the contention that the housewife would not have full control over her own housework, that so long as her requirements were not unreasonable they would always be given full attention by the management, who would, in fact, 'be able to exercise better discipline than is now tho case."

"I like that suggestion," s-aid another lady yesterday. "It reaches (ho real crux of the domestic help problem—the competence of tho worker. Wo women know very well that incompetence is tho curse of the home. I won't say anything about wives. But it is notorious that very many of the domestic, workers available at the prosent time lack skill and knowledge. We all know the girl who takes an hour and a half to wash up the dishes after a family meal, who thinks the cleaning of a room is half a day's york, who wastes food through sheer ignorance, and who still demands an exceedingly high wage. Blessed and envied is tho woman who has secured a competent girl—tho old fashioned sort, of girl who can sit down with her sowing in a clean kitchen early in Hie afternoon, and who can lcavo the house without being missed lialf an hour after the evening meal has been finished. But the trouble is that a girl of that kind can make a success in almost svv walk of life—including matrimony-:' '.J she docs not often stay in domestic '..-''vice. AVliy? That is the question. It is nut merely ii question of pay. The domestic; help at 15s. or 2()s. a week, with.board and lodging, is better paid than tho tea-shop girl or the shop assistant at .lO.s. or ijr«. a week. , '

There appears to be no doubt (hat llio (shortage of domestic labour is due to some extent to the prevailing notion dun a shop assistant or a clerk has n belter social stains than a domestic, worker. The housewives of New Zealand might profitably consider how to improve the status of thn domestic worker. The first step appears lo be to define her hours and duties, and abandon the old idea that an employer lias the right to supervise tho goings and comings of the domestic worker outside the hours rf duty.