﻿86

III.—CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES.

Societies which, in these years shared profits with their em-
ployees, the number of the employees of these Societies, and the
ratio which the bonus received by them bore to their wages, are
shown in the Table which follows : —

Profit-sharing by Agricultural Productive Societies,

1899-1910!

[ Compiled from Returns made to the Labour Department, to the Chief Registrar of
Friendly Societies, and to the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society.']

					Societies which shared Profits with their Employees.		
		Year.		No. of all Societies at end of Year.	No. of Societies which paid Bonus in Year.	No. of Employees receiving Bonus on Wages in Year.	Ratio of Bonus to Wages- of Participants in Year.
1899				137	i	3	Per Cent. 2-5
1900				156	ii	48	5-6
1901				161	12	78	4-9
1902				193	14	77	2-9
1903				225	19	133	4-3
1904				256	24	126	4-2
1905				260	27	177	3-3
1906				272	30	186	3-3
1907				287	38	222	5-4
1908				302	31	174	5-0
1909				317	48	318	5-4
1910				335	45	321	6-2

It will be seen that, taking all the Societies comprised in this
group together, the element of Profit-sharing with employees has
not, so far, played an important part in the organisation of the
Agricultural Productive Societies. Among these Societies the
principal group is formed by the Irish Dairying Societies, 291 in
number in 1910, with aggregate sales of £2,059,905, or 93'4 per
cent, of the total sales of the whole of the Agricultural Productive
Societies in the United Kingdom. The profits made by these 291
Irish Societies in 1910 amounted to £23,958, out of which £591
in all was paid by 38 Societies to their employees as bonus on
wages, to which it made an average addition of 5’9 per
cent. With respect to shareholding by employees, the rules of
the Agricultural Productive Societies provide that the share in
profits falling to the employees shall be accumulated as shares in
the Societies; and in those cases in which a share in profits has.
been paid to the employees, it may be presumed that there are
in the Societies by which this bonus has been allotted a certain
number of employee-shareholders; speaking generally, however,
it does not appear that in any considerable number of cases
employees are members of the Society by which they are employed,
nor that the employees are, to any very appreciable extent, repre-
sented on the Committees of Management of these Agricultural
Productive Societies.