Fortschritt und Armut

Cost of living in German towns

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 1027863817

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-43741

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: George, Henry http://d-nb.info/gnd/118716948

Title:: Fortschritt und Armut

Edition:: Sechste, unveränderte Auflage

Place of publication:: Jena

Publisher:: Verlag von Gustav Fischer

Year of publication:: 1920

Scope:: 1 Online-Ressource (XII, 407 Seiten)

Digitisation:: 2018

Collection:: Economics Books

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Buch III. Die Gesetze der Verteilung

Collection:: Economics Books

MANNHEIM. 331 which work 10^ hours, and several of the larger engineering concerns, which work only 9^ hours. The usual limits of employment are 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., and only rarely does work continue until 6.30. Between these hours there is a mid day pause of an hour and a half or an hour and a quarter, according to the distance of the factory from the workers’ homes, with a breakfast pause of half an hour, which is spent in or about the works, and a “ vesper ” (afternoon) pause at 4 o’clock of less duration. Night work is only usual where continuous operations are essential, but there has for a long time been a good deal of over time. In the engineering trade the term of notice is a week or a fortnight, though predominantly the latter ; in the less skilled industries it is a week. In some undertakings, however, no notice is required on either side, and but for the unpopularity of this arrangement with the working classes generally, many more employers would be glad to adopt it. It is the universal rule, however, that an engagement may be terminated either at the end of the day or at a moment’s notice during the first week of employment. Wages are usually paid fortnightly, several days’ pay being kept in hand, but interim advances up to a given proportion of average earnings may be claimed. The holidays observed are New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Ascension Day, Whit Monday, Corpus Christi, and two days at Christmas. Some of the brewers and a large number of the book printers have for some time given their employees several days’ leave during the year in addition, without deduction of wages. It is also not unusual for employers to make an allowance of 6cf., la., or even 2s. a work-day to the men who are absent on military duty. The works regulations which, according to legal requirement, are placed ' in the hands of all workpeople by their employers, do not materially differ from those usual elsewhere, though some of them contain stringent provisions on the subject of negligence. Thus, in several large works fines varying from 2\d. to half a day’s wages, with instant dismissal in aggravated cases, are threatened in the event of (1) late coming or too early leaving ; (2) loitering in a room where the offender is not working ; (3) “ sleeping or . being found in sleeping position or in general being unoccupied ” (both day and night shifts are here worked) ; (4) entering or leaving the factory yard other wise than past the porter’s lodge ; and (5) neglecting to warn strangers off the premises. In the building trades 9, 9J, and 10 hours a day are worked in summer, though 10 predominantly. As a rule no notice is required before the determi nation of an engagement, though masons can only be dismissed or leave at the end of the day, and in the case of carpenters notice must be given on Thursday for the following Saturday. Wages are paid at the end of each week. In the carpenters’ wages agreement there is the stipulation that " May-day,” the recognised festival of the Social Democratic party throughout Germany, shall be observed as a holiday. The usual weekly rates of wages for skilled men in the engineering trade range from 305. to 305., though in isolated cases both higher and lower rates are paid ; labourers as a rule earn from 215. to 235. In the State Railway works skilled men earn from 195. 5c?. to 245. 11c?. and labourers from 155. 6d. to 175. 9d. It should be stated, however, that two large engineering works pay exceptionally high rates, which are nox representative of the trade generally. In the paper and wood pulp industry the wages in the higher branches of work range from 245. to 27s., but the rate for general labourers is from 185. to 215. A large number of men are employed in the lumber yards and the saw mills adjacent to the docks ; unloaders earn from 215. 7d. to 245., and inside men—joiners at the machine and sawyers—from 245. to 305., while ordinary labourers earn from 195. 10c?. to 205. 5c?. The general rate for unskilled workmen in the chemical industry is 18a. to 215. a week, and this rate covers the great majority, but furnace and apparatus men earn from 245. to 35s. ; between these two ranges there is much differentia tion according to the quality, danger, and difficulty of the work done. Wages in the rubber and celluloid industry, which is carried on in several neighbouring suburbs, are from I85. to 215. for ordinary labourers and 24a. for better men. 22088 2 T 2

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