Report on profit-sharing and labour co-partnership in the United Kingdom

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 1016336950

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-27123

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Report on profit-sharing and labour co-partnership in the United Kingdom

Place of publication:: London

Publisher:: His Majesty's Stationery Office

Year of publication:: 1912

Scope:: 1 Online-Ressource (160 Seiten)

Digitisation:: 2018

Collection:: Economics Books

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Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Title page

Collection:: Economics Books

3 For one reason or another a large number of failures seem to have occurred in the various attempts which have been made to give the workers a direct share of profits. In more than half the cases of abandoned schemes the cause of abandonment seems, however, to be traceable not to any inherent fault in the scheme as such, but to the falling off of business and to the fact that there were no profits to share. This form of weakness is less likely to affect undertakings which are more or less of the nature of monopolies. Gas companies account for 33 out of the 133 profit-sharing schemes now known to be in existence; but it would probably be unsafe to deduce from their experience any general principles applicable to commercial undertakings of an ordinary character. Doubtless the success or failure of profit-sharing depends largely on the type of scheme introduced, on its applicability to the particular business of the employer, and on the spirit in which it is worked by the two parties to the agreement. To what extent it may be possible for profit-sharing and co-partnership arrangements to become general throughout British industry, and what influence the adoption of such systems would be likely to exert in promoting' industrial peace, are questions which are of very great moment, but which it would certainly be improper to attempt to answer in a Report like the present, intended, not to formulate opinions, but only to supply the facts and materials upon which a judgment may be formed. A section of the Report deals briefly with Profit-sharing and Labour Co-partnership in co-operative societies. This section presents some special features arising out of the fact that here there is no separate employing class, and the capital is provided by the members of these workmen’s societies. In the retail dis tributive societies, or “ co-operative stores,” 195, or about one in seven of the whole “Store” group, have profit-sharing schemes for the workers employed. The number of profit-sharing workers in these societies was upwards of 17,000 in the year 1910; and the bonus divided amounted to about 4£ per cent, on the wages of the workers participating. In addition, one of the co-opera tive wholesale societies, and three of the consumers’ productive societies, had profit-sharing schemes, with about 7,600 and 1,300 participating workers, respectively, in the year 1910. Another group of co-operative societies are the Productive Associations of Workers, that is to say, societies formed and managed primarily in the interests of the workers employed, and not of the consumers. In view of this feature of their constitu tion, it is not surprising to find that 40 of them, or nearly half of the total number, allotted a share in their profits to their workers in 1910, either as bonus on wages or as contributions to provident funds, or both. Moreover, a large proportion (36^ per cent, in 19.10) of the committee-men who manage such societies are themselves workers. In conclusion, I desire, to point out that, although an endeavour has been made to make the particulars contained in this Report with regard to Profit-sharing and Co-partnership in private 4 2 24548

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