General statistics
List of Youtube channels
Youtube commenter search
Distinguished comments
About
Big Blue
Fact Feast
comments
Comments by "Big Blue" (@bigblue6917) on "The Life and Crimes of a Victorian House Maid (19th Century Servants and Punishment)" video.
One of the things with employing servants was that it was against the law for them to go on strike, which made it difficult to get better pay and working conditions. Interestingly railway employees were also classed as servants to the railway companies for the same reason. But in this case it did not have the same results as railway employees did go on strike and the railways did not invoke the notion that as servants what they were doing was illegal in case it inflamed the situation and would make thinks worse. After WW1 many of them left service to get better jobs. This meant many households were struggling to find servants. A situation made worse by the fact that they could not match the increase in pay many former servants were now receiving. They even tried to get the government of the day to force unemployed servants to return to service, but to no avail.
20