&6 
II.—PRIVATE FIRMS AND COMPANIES. 
appear necessary 'with a view to obtaining 1 any desired alterations 
in the conditions of employment. Accordingly, the Union 
insisted that the profit-sharing 1 scheme should be abolished, and 
[subsequently explained to be a mistake for or] that the men 
who had accepted it should be removed from the works; and to 
enforce this demand over 2,000 men (practically the whole of the 
company’s stokers) came out on strike on December 12, 1889. The 
company filled the places of the strikers; and the strike, having 
virtually worn itself out, came to an end on February 4, 1890. 
The lines upon which the profit-sharing scheme was carried out 
were materially changed in 1894, when it was arranged that the 
rate of bonus should be increased from 1 to ljj- per cent, on wages 
for every penny at which gas was sold below the standard price; 
provided that, when the rate of bonus reached 9 per cent., the 
further increase was to be at the old rate of 1 per cent. The new 
arrangement applied to employees who should agree to have 
one-half of the whole amount of their bonus for the current year 
invested for them in the stock of the company; the bonus was to 
be calculated on the daily wages, no account being taken of over 
time, and as to men on piece-work, on the amount the men would 
have earned at their ordinary rates in the regular working hours; 
the sums to be thus set aside out of bonus were to be invested 
in the names of trustees (three in number, one director, one officer, 
and one profit-sharing workman); and when a man had so credited 
to him an amount sufficient to buy £5 worth of stock (the price of 
which was then £12 15s.) a stock certificate should be issued in 
his name. Such winter men only as arranged to come back the 
following winter were allowed to have their bonus on the new scale. 
The company also undertook to allow 4 per cent, interest upon all 
withdrawable amounts and any other savings, and to arrange 
for the investment of any such sums in its stock or shares. 
The agreement which the company required its employees to 
sign as a condition of their participation in profits* required the 
employee to state that he was not a member of the Gas Workers’ 
TJniont and the continuance of his employment was made con 
ditional on his not joining that Union* ; but these restrictions were 
dropped many years ago. The form of agreement, which for a 
long time has been and now is in force, is printed at p. 145; 
the period for which the men engage themselves is, for the most 
part, 12 months, save in the case of the winter men, whose terms 
of service vary from 3 to 6 months. The Rules of the scheme 
provided for the appointment of a Profit-sharing Committee (the 
* “ The directors reserve the right to refuse permission to sign an agreement 
to any man who takes no interest in the welfare of the company, or who is 
wasteful of the company’s property, or careless or negligent in the performance 
of his duty.” 
t l’ or the reasons which induced the company to insert this declaration in the 
profit-sharing agreement (which originally contained no such declaration) see the 
evidence given by Sir G. (then Mr.) Livesey before the Labour Commission, 
Evidence before Labour Commission, Group C., Yol. III., p. 244, also p. 238 and 
p. 598. 
4 The Company also had a rule against the employment of members of the 
Coal Porters Union ; in a circular issued by the Chairman of the Company in 
September, 1899, it was stated that “ the prohibition stands to this day, but no 
inquisitorial methods are adopted to enforce it.”