SWEATING COMMISSION.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2007, 13 February 1890, Page 2

SWEATING COMMISSION.

j The Sweating Commission eom- } menced its sitting at Dunedin on 5 Monday. i Mr Hansen, Inspector of Factories, f gave evidence relative to the working 3 of the Employment Act. The practice J of overtime had been largely put a ’ stop to of lata owing to press criticisms. I He knew two cases in which a refusal | to take work home led to dismissal. [ Under the Act he had no right to . interfere with this system of sending work out, nor had he power to compel !■ admission to the factory. The em- ( ployment of young persons was not , carried on to any large extent. In , some cases he found young girls working after hours, but was °always told they were merely receiving lessons. Young boys taken on at six in the morning were kept at work sometimes as late as ten at night. This occurred in a rope factory. He thought no child under 14 should be allowed to work. Barmaids often worked from eight in the morning until midnight. S. cipragg, who had conducted inquiries for The Daily Times which led to the publication of the series , of articles, said he bad found very little of what he called “ sweatthat is sub-letting by a person receiving a fair remuneration to people in distress at starvation rates. He found any quantity of work let out at such rates that when the people worked until 10 o’clock at night they earned 12s per week. He put down the primary cause to reckless competition—that was recklessness on the part of employers as to whether the workpeople could live honestly or at all on the rates given. Some thought the evil was due to the love of the public for cheap things. The l|d or 2d Jess P e F,. u 'k was 110 inducement to the public and very little to the retailer. He thought the fault lay with the wholesale people who made the profit and they should bear the blame as long as they retained the profits, s On Tuesday Miss Morrison, vicepresident of the Tailoressea’ Union, said that the wages of apprenticed workmen m the shops ranged from 5s to 85s per week, and the hours were ; from 8.30 till 5,30. The workmen 1 have to work very bard to obtain a 1 b ire subsistence. Half a-crown a day ■ m a good average wage for women, it the work is taken home it brings a shilling extra. This was prior to the j

establishment of the Union. Since the Union started wages had a tendency to decrease, workmen being unable to make a fair wage, about 19s weekly, excluding the hoisery trade. The sanitary condition of the Dunedin factories _is good. There were not many tailoresses not connected with the Tailoresses’ Union. She had nothing to do with the bag trade, and was not well acquainted with it, but the union would very likely take it up shortly. Witness was of opinion that unionism was much required in dressmaking establishments. Girls worked for a year for nothing, and then received 2s 6d a week, and if they wanted higher wages they generally had to leave and obtain work elsewhere. Many girls did not care to go to service —partly on account of the low wages paid, and also because they did not have much time to themselves.