Report of the Royal Commission on Labour in India

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 1850495947

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-233603

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Report of the Royal Commission on Labour in India

Place of publication:: London

Publisher:: His Majesty's Stationery Off.

Year of publication:: 1931

Scope:: xviii, 580 S.; graph. Darst., Kt.

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter XII. - The income of the industrial worker

Collection:: Economics Books

220 CHAPTER XII. railways and the practice in the cotton textile mills, already men- tioned, of handing over spoilt cloth. We have dealt with railway debits elsewhere. So far as spoilt cloth is concerned, where the wholesale price is deducted from the weaver’s wages, there can be no undue profit to the employer. Further, it is a tenable position that the worker is entitled only to payment for satisfactory cloth and that he is liable to make good the damage done to the employer’s material. While there is evidence to show that in some mills the practice is carried too far, there are no reliable figures to indicate the actual loss sustained by the weaver which obviously depends on the price which he can se- cure for the cloth. We recommend that the law should provide that the deduction should in no case exceed the wholesale price of the goods damaged. This, together with the registration of deductions proposed later, may be sufficient to prevent abuses, but the registers will in any case provide the material necessary to determine whether or not further regulation is required. A Minority View. Mr Cliff, Mr Joshi and Diwan Chaman Lall dissent from our general conclusion on the ground that if an employer is to exercise the power of making deductions from the wages of the worker, equity demands that he should not be the final arbiter, but that a right of appeal should lie with an impartial tribunal. They are opposed to employers being able to exercise such power. In many instances, the power to make deductions is distributed indiscriminately over a large body of subordinates occupying minor supervisory posts, who do not usually possess the judicial qualities necessary for the exercise of such power. An examination of the working of the system reveals that, in many cases, fining becomes a habit and is resorted to as the line of least resistance. The workers, owing to lack of combination and other causes, are unable to exercise any effective check against the abuses which unquestionably occur. Experience teaches that, where the practice has been discontinued or where it has never been resorted to, the discipline necéssary to industry can be maintained and, in their opinion, leads to a better relationship between the employer and the worker. The interests not only of the worker but also of industry dictate that the practice of making deductions from the wages of workers, except the charges for services rendered to which reference is made in the following paragraph, should he prohibited, and they recommend acrordingly. Other Deductions. Of the other deductions to which reference has been made, namely, those In respect of specific causes or benefits, some should be recognised as legitimate and others should be prohibited. The former are deduc- tions made on account of definite services rendered by the employer and voluntarily accepted by the worker, and in this case the only restriction we suggest is that the deduction should not exceed the equivalent of the services rendered. Deductions may be allowed on account of the pro- vision of housing accommodation and of tools or raw materials. In

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