DUTIES OF A HOUSEMAID

Taranaki Daily News, 15 November 1926, Page 12

DUTIES OF A HOUSEMAID

ARBITRATION COURT DECISION. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Greymouth, Nov. 12. An appeal from the decision of the magistrate, Mr. W. Meldrum, in the case of the Department of Labour v. Mrs. A. Mclntyre, licensee of the Duke of Edinburgh Hotel, Greymouth, was heard to-day in the Arbitration Court. The magistrate's decision was to the effect that .the bar was part of the hotel, and a housemaid required to scrub out the bar was not entitled to extra wages for doing so. Mr. Justice Frazer to-day said a housemaid should not be required to scrub the bar, which might be likened to a shop attached to a house. The Court was satisfied that a housemaid’s duties did not extend to the bar; a “general,” however, received 10s weekly more .than a housemaid and scrubbing the bar could be part of her duty. z If a housemaid was employed to do such work she must be paid a general’s wages. The work in most hotel bars was done by a male porter. The Court upheld the appeal and referred the question of costs to the magistrate, with the idea of making a test case.