Report of the Royal Commission on Labour in India

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 1850495947

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-233603

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Report of the Royal Commission on Labour in India

Place of publication:: London

Publisher:: His Majesty's Stationery Off.

Year of publication:: 1931

Scope:: xviii, 580 S.; graph. Darst., Kt.

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter III. - The employment of the factory worker

Collection:: Economics Books

THE EMPLOYMENT OF THE:FACTORY WORKER, 23 journeyed to distant villages and brought back recruits to the mills, paying their fares and expenses to the city. Such methods are still employed for many industries, particularly ‘planting, mining, publie works and some seasonal factory industries ; but now the great major- ity of managers of perennial factories need go no further than their own gate to obtain the workers they require. Only in minor centres and in the starting of new mills is recourse to the older methods some- bimes necessary. Contractors are still largely employed in some factory industries, particularly engineering and metal works, but these men are not contractors so much as subordinate employers, and most of them can also secure labour at the factory gate. Unfortunately the removal of the market for labour from the village to the factory gate has not generally meant the assumption by the employer of direct responsibility for the engagement of his own workers. This duty is still left largely to intermediaries, and especially to jobbers. This brings us to one of the most remarkable features of Indian factory organisation. Position of the Jobber. The jobber, known in different parts of India by different names, such as sardar, mukaddam or maistry, is almost ubiquitous in the Indian factory system and usually combines in one person a formidable series of functions. He is primarily a chargeman. Promoted from the ranks after full experience of the factory, he is responsible for the supervision of labour while at work. In a large factory, there may be a hierarchy of jobbers for this purpose, including women overseers in departments staffed by women. He has also, on many occasions, to act as assistant mechanic, and to help in keeping the machines in running order. So far as the worker is given technical training, the jobber is expected to provide it. He is not, however, merely responsible for the worker once he hag obtained work ; the worker has generally bo approach him to secure a job, and is nearly always dependent on him for the security of that job as well as for a transfer to a better one, Many jobbers foliow the worker even further than the factory gate ; they may finance him when he is in debt and he may even be dependent on them for his housine. The Jobber as Intermediary. As important as any of these functions 1s the duty which the jobbers perform in their capacity as intermediaries between employer and employee. It is to the jobbers that the employer generally gocs when he wishes to notify a change to the workers; it is from the jobbers that he derives most of his information regarding their needs and desires. When a manager states that he informed the workers of a change in conditions, or that he was told by them that they desired a change, he too often means that he conveyed the news (possibly through a subordinate) to the jobbers, or that the jobbers alleged that the workers had a grievance. The same applies to orders affecting mdividual workers, and to their complaints. The iobber thus adds +o

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