Today in History

1906 Domestic workers call for 68-hour week

At a meeting held in Wellington, Marianne Tasker attempted to establish a domestic workers' union. Central to their demands was the call for a 68-hour working week. From the late 1880s to the 1930s domestic service was the single largest employment category for women. Domestics could be found in more than 15,000 dwellings nationwide.

A common complaint was that 'good help was hard to find'. The idea of domestic service had never sat well with the 'free-born colonial young woman'. This was hardly surprising given the working conditions most domestics endured: a 16 hour-day, six and a half days a week, and all for low wages.

In 1896 an attempt to legislate for domestics to have a half-day off each week was defeated. Edward Tregear, secretary of the fledgling Department of Labour, recognised that the ideals of domestic service were 'feudal and medieval', but was quick to point out that too many girls moving into factories would be 'fatal to our future domestic comfort'.

The labour reforms of the Liberal government had by the late-1890s earned New Zealand a reputation of being a 'working man's paradise'. A 68-hour working week hardly seemed an unreasonable demand for anyone. New Zealanders had after all been celebrating Labour Day and the struggle for an eight-hour working day since 1890. Tasker and her supporters wanted to use the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act to force employers to comply with the union's demands.  

Tasker believed a union would improve working conditions and help attract more young women to domestic service. This would address a common complaint of employers. Her opponents failed to see any possible benefits from a unionised workforce. Employers formed their own organisation to confront the prospective new union.

Public figures also waded into the issue. The wife of the Wellington mayor complained that a union would result in the loss of 'loving service'. Domestic workers who complained, she concluded, were 'mainly those who were incompetent'. A number of women's groups that might have been expected to support better conditions for their 'sisters' also struggled to accept the need for a union. Domestic service was seen as ideal preparation for marriage and as such 'no girl can do better or higher work than that of making a home happy and comfortable' (even if it wasn't their home).

Ironically it was having a domestic servant on call that gave many middle-class women the freedom to escape the confines of the home environment. This freedom was often used to pursue interests often seen as improving society and the position of women in New Zealand society.

An administrative blunder presented the opponents to the union with the opportunity to 'nip it in the bud'. In mid-1907 Marianne Tasker left New Zealand for a visit to Britain. The acting secretary failed to re-register the union and the Registrar of Industrial Unions cancelled its registration. To add insult to injury, the Registrar justified the cancellation on the grounds that a domestic was not a 'worker', because 'domestic servants were kept for comfort and convenience'.

• Image: Domestic Servants wanted poster

1931 Coalition formed to combat Depression

Prime Minister Forbes informed an inter-party conference that a coalition government was needed to 'share the responsibility' of dealing with the depression. Labour withdrew from these discussions but Forbes was supported by the Reform Party.

Image: George Forbes (DNZB)