Report of the Royal Commission on Labour in India

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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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Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter XVIII. - Industrial disputes

Collection:: Economics Books

334 CHATTER XVIII, As the figures of working days lost depend mainly on the pre- sence or absence in any year of one or two big strikes, the two other columns give a better indication of the general prevalence of industrial strife. These show the widespread turmoil of 1921 and the diminution of strife thereafter until the appearance of a second wave of unrest in 1928. Some particulars of the approximate causes of these strikes are available, as the statistics tabulated by the Government of India give the classification of the disputes according to the principal demand of the workers. This shows that in 976 disputes the principal demand related to the question of pay or bonus and in 425 to the question of personnel. In the latter cases, the demand was normally for the reinstatement or dismissal of one or more individuals, and the proportion under this head appears tous to be high. 74 strikes were primarily concerned with ques- tions of leave or hours of work and the remaining 382 are unclassified in respect of the demand made. In the official returns two-thirds of the strikes are classified as unsuccessful Wider Economic Causes. Behind immediate causes such as these, it is possible to trace the wider influences which have been at work. The great outbreak of strife after the war had obvious economic causes; a rise in wage levels was overdue, and the workers awoke to the disabilities from which they suf- fered in respect of long hours and other matters. By the end of 1922 the position was again more or less stabilised, hours had been reduced, conditions had improved and wages had risen, prices had fallen consider- ably from the peaks attained in 1920 and 1921, and the post-war boom was over. During the ensuing five years prices showed only small variations ; the Bombay working class cost of living index number, for example, neither fell below 152 nor rose above 161 in any month after October 1922 and before October 1927. The State, the employers and the public now co-operated in introducing certain ameliorative measures. In consequence of all these factors, the quinquennium 1923-1927 was one of comparative peace, in spite of a steady growth of consciousness and cohesion among the workers and the survival of many sources of dis- content. By the end of this period prices showed signs of falling again and, although industry did not cease to expand, profits steadily con- tracted and, in a number of cases, disappeared. Endeavours to meet the depression by improved methods of production, retrenchments of staff, or reductions of wages had a large share in the fresh outbreak of strife in 1998 Causes Unconnected with Industry. Causes unconnected with industry play a much smaller part in strikes than is frequently supposed. The employer who is faced with a strike and is uncertain as to the cause is inclined to lay the blame on “ agitators ”. There are, of course, some strikes which are not due to economic causes. Examples of these are the stoppages known as hartals, which are often meant as protests against acts in which the employer may have had no share, e.g., action by Government or by the police. In

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