THE SWEATING COMMISSION

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 453, 12 March 1890, Page 5

THE SWEATING COMMISSION

INQUIRY AT CHRISTCHURCH, Christchurch, March S. Before the Commission last night Thomas McDonald, labour agent, denied that lie / charged different prices to difi'ei'enb customers. He chai’ged a man who got permanent situation to 1 per cent, on tho yearly wages, ; - F. S. Parkes, President of the Tailors’ Union, deposed that before the strike weekly hands in the Ivaiapoi Factory, not including overseex's or tabie hands, averaged 15s 9(1 per week ; 200 piece workers aver-. . aged 10s 2d. After the strike weekly wage' hands had a rise of li per cent., and pieceworkers 50 per cent. ; presser.- had a rise of 2£ to 15 per cent. He knew one girl who previously worked till two a.nx. to earn 15s a week. The Union had stopped this sort of thing. All the hands were in the Union except in one or two small establishments. In one of these one man and 12 boys were employed. Tho boys there returned to work at seven p.m., and worked till ten or eleven. The employees earned higher wages u’icier the Dunedin _log than under the Christchurch log, and the work done in Dunedin was infeiior. He was personally in favour of the adoption of the Dunedin log here, but the majority of the Union would prefer to see the Christchurch log generally adopted. A boy employed at paper bag making deposed that he had been paid 3d per 1.000 tor confectioners’ bags, and made 3s fid to 4s 6d per week. A hairdresser deposed that he worked from 8 a nx. to 9 p.m., on Saturdays to 11 p.m., with an hour for dinner, for £2 10s per week. Robert Clark, draper, secretary to the Eax’ly Closing Association, said the pi’esenb hours were detrimental to the health and well-being of shop employees. E. C. Brown, manager of the D.1.C., said that there were some seasons in the year when two or three girls were obliged to return to the shop to ari’ange goods fox- next day. To do this, he was obliged to open shop, as the Act did nob permit females bo be employed when the place is closed. The Act was thus no protection to shop girls.