Report of the Royal Commission on National Health Insurance

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 1740277147

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-132094

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Report of the Royal Commission on National Health Insurance

Place of publication:: London

Publisher:: Stationery Office

Year of publication:: 1926

Scope:: XII, 394 S.

Digitisation:: 2020

Collection:: Economics Books

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Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter IV. The related schemes of social welfare

Collection:: Economics Books

HE PORT ECONOMICS investigations, both official and private, conferences and discussions without number between leaders and repre- sentatives of both sides, but the matter still remains, in this country, in an unsatisfactory condition. This will hardly be the occasion for much surprise when the complex factors entering into the problem have been stated. Apart from a small percentage of trained operatives, principally engaged in a specialized capacity, and privileged bodies, such as lightermen and watermen, the great bulk of port labour is of an unskilled kind, not calling for any particular training, and only requiring a stout physique, muscular fitness, and a modicum of intelligence. Men who are unfitted for other occupations seem to drift into dock work as naturally as the drainage system of a country finds its way to the lowest level. This would not be so bad in itself, were it not accom- panied by the fact that dockwork is of an extremely casual type, and even under normal, not to say favourable, conditions, the supply of labour must necessarily exceed the demand. Many classes of goods, such as fruit and timber, are seasonal, that is to say, they arrive in large quantities, sufficient even to cause congestion, during a short period, and thereafter, for many months, there is stagnation, with practically no movement at all. The soft wood trade from Scandinavian countries ceases with the advent of winter, when the Baltic is closed by ice, and ports in other parts of the world are equally affected by climatic conditions. Not only are many trades seasonal, but there are all the uncertainties due to the incidence of bad weather, the inability of ships to keep schedule time, the fluctuations of markets, the irregularity of sailings, and a score of intruding influences which go to render the demand for dock labour exceedingly capricious and fitful. An element of cautious policy also enters into the matter. The employer of labour, whether an important corporation maintaining a large establishment, or a minor contractor

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