SCRUBBING THE BAR.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5142, 22 June 1927, Page 2

SCRUBBING THE BAR.

NOT A HOUSEMAID’S DUTY.

ARBITRATION COURT RULING. Should a housemaid who scrubs out the house bar of an (hotel be deemed a general hand? This question is answered in the negative by Mr Justice Frazer, president of the Arbitration Court, in the. course of an interpretation of the Licensed Hotels Employees’ Award. The opinion was the result of an application by the Inspector of Awards at Wellington, who sought an interpretation of the clause in the awa.rd that states a general hand may be employed in any capacity desired by his or her employer. “The Court,” said His Honour “has already held that it is not part of a housemaid’s duty to scrub out the public bar of a.n hotel. Her work is in connection with the house, and the public bar may be likened to a shop attached to the house. There is some difficulty in defining a ‘house bar’ for the purposes of the award. In some cases the house bar is a mere cupboard or locker of a sma.ll room with a slide opening on to a passage. Lodgers and the public are not admitted, and the so-called house bar is merely a place from which liquor is dispensed. There is nothing objectionable in the scrubbing of such a place, and the Court sees no reason why it should not be performed by a housemaid. In other cases the house bar is fitted up in the same manner as a public bar, and persons other than the staff are admitted tor the purpose of consuming liquor. In the opinion of the Court such a house bar is for the purposes of the award, indistinguishable from a public bar, and it is not part of a housemaid’s duty to scrub it out.”