DRIFT TO OTHER JOBS

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 263, 5 August 1942, Page 4

DRIFT TO OTHER JOBS

Workers In Hotels And Boarding-Houses REGISTRATION ADVOCATED The declaration of hotels and board-ing-houses as essential undertakings has done little if anything to relieve tlie labour position, according to managers of Wellington establishments. The general opinion is that with so many of employment open, specially for girls, hotel workers have drifted to other jobs which they consider more attractive. "The plain fact is that there are now more positions than workers,” said one manager. He added that it was easier to fill positions for male members of the staff than female.

“It is no use declaring an undertaking essential unless it is also made essential for all experienced workers to return to that undertaking,” commented a man with many years’ experience, who suggested that it should be made compulsory for all who had worked in hotels and boarding-houses during the past few years to register, as had been done -with workers in several other essential industries. Support for this suggestion was forthcoming from the secretary of the Wellington Hotel and Restaurant Workers’ Union, Mr. F. OlSullivan, yesterday. He had this move in mind, but said that no representations on those lines had 'been made to the Government. One-eighth of the employees in hotels and restaurants in the Wellington Industrial district have left without being replaced -within the past .two years, but the hotels and restaurants in Wellington city are busier now than during the exhibition, said Mr. O’Sullivan. Of 2000 workers on the union’s books in 1940, between 250 and 300 were no longer members. A few years ago the Wellington union, which acted as an employment agency, filled 700 positions In a year, but there had been no applicants for positions this year. As an example of the difficulties facing tearoom and restaurant proprietors, he added that when a well-known Wellington tearoom closed at the beginning of the year only four of the staff of 45 took up similar positions; the rest took jobs in factories or shops.