WOMEN IN A BAKEHOUSE

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 7, 4 October 1920, Page 5

WOMEN IN A BAKEHOUSE

{, LABOUR DEPARTMENT CRITICISED., By Tolceranh—Press Association ' Auckland, October 2. A ease connected with tire prosecution of two women who conduct a home-mads cake shop in Gisborno was heard br Mr.! Justice Stringer to-day. The Magistrate at Gisborne had asked tho Arbitration. Court to state whether it had jurisdiction to insert a clause in the.'award prohibiting women from working in a bakehouse. The Court hold unhesitatingly that it had jurisdiction to say whether Women should or shonld not work in* bake* houses.

Counsel for the dlefendjant admitted; in answer to a tiuery from the Court* that the question was a new and puro« ly academic one, as in Auckland women who owned home-made cake shops had. not been cited as parties to the bakers' dispute, and since the prosecution in ■ Gisborne, which dated from February last, a new award had been filed, and the prohibition against women working in'bakehousos had been deleted. - ■ His Honour made severe comment on the Labour Department. He said, he failed to understand the principles upon which the Department proceeded. Time after time there were'breaches of awards in the way of strikes, and no .prosecution ensued. Here a caso in. a remote part of tho country, where ft couplq of ladies were baking a few cakes, and the question of the making of ii bakehouse. cropped up, with the result, that the ladies were prosecuted. His Honour said ho had to confess that he did not understand it,