Women -- Employment -- Great Britain; Women labor union members -- Great Britain; Working class women -- Great Britain
_Miss Tracey._--I had a long struggle with the occupier of a large laundry
in Lancashire over fines for coming late. The work started at 6, and it
was said that only three minutes (supposed to be five), were allowed as
grace. The weekly wages were phenomenally small, but no work was demanded
on Saturdays unless under exceptional circumstances. If a girl came to the
laundry after the gate was closed (three minutes after 6 A.M.), she was
shut out till after breakfast, a fine was inflicted for late attendance,
and if this happened more than once, one-sixth of the total wage was
deducted for Saturday, although no work was required. I found these fines
to amount to as much as 1s. 8d. out of a wage of 4s. 6d., and other sums
in proportion. This iniquitous custom had been followed for twenty years,
and I was assured that it was a case of "adjustment of wages" and did not
come under the Truck Act. However, my view eventually prevailed; certain
sums were repaid and the whole system done away with, without bringing the
case into Court. In other respects, the laundry was a good one, and no
work on Saturday is an arrangement that is of great benefit to young and
old workers alike. The plan now adopted is that a girl consistently
unpunctual during the week will be required to come in on Saturday morning
to do a few hours' work--this plan has worked so well that no one, when I
last visited, had been in the laundry on Saturday at all.
_Miss Slocock._--(1) Two girls, aged respectively eighteen and nineteen,
employed as cutters, were fined £2 : 14s. and 11s. 2d. for cutting some
handkerchiefs badly and damaging the cloth. The deductions were made at
the rate of 1s. per week, and at the time of my visit, each worker had
already had 10s. 6d. deducted from her wages. Proceedings were considered,
but the employer, directly his attention was drawn to the matter, refunded
5s. 6d. to one worker and agreed not to make any further deduction from
the other, so that one girl paid 5s. for damage amounting to 11s. 2d. and
the other 10s. 6d. for damage amounting to £2 : 14s. These amounts, 11s.
2d. and £2 : 14s. represented exactly the whole loss to the firm caused by
the damaged work, and the employer thought that he was acting legally so
long as the deductions did not exceed that amount. The fact that the Truck
Act specifically draws attention to this limitation is constantly brought
to my notice, and used as an excuse for putting the whole cost of any
damage on the workers. The average gross weekly wage earned by these
workers for the eleven weeks during which deductions were being made was
8s. 1d. and 10s. 10-1/2d. respectively.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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