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