Some of the work done by young women in woollen mills was paid by the ‘piece’ rather than by the hour, and sometimes employees even took work home so that they could add to their tally and earn more. Some factories and mills gave out work to be done at home by outworkers. These workers, who were mainly women, are the people Tailoresses’ Union president Harriet Morison is referring to as she points out to the Labour Minister William Pember Reeves, that the conditions of the Factory Act do not include these piece workers’ conditions. Reeves replies: ‘Yes, that’s an awkward gap. We must patch it up next session without fail.’
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
National Library of New Zealand, Papers Past
Reference:
New Zealand Observer and Freelance, 27 January 1894, p. 1
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