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 XXI. - Wages on planatations

Collection:: Economics Books

WAGES ON PLANTATIONS, 395 record of the hours of work is impracticable, owing to the complete liberty of the Assam garden worker to come and go at his own pleasure. We appreciate the difficulty, but we believe that it can be overcome with reasonable discipline and organisation. The present system, which antails the absence of any systematic check on the hours of work, is no more in the workers’ than in the employers’ interests and removes all incentive to increase efficiency. Ifa basic rate had to be paid for work covering a given unit of time, the employer would ensure a mini- mum standard of efficiency, instead of allowing the worker to come and 00 at his will or to take his own time over his work. The worker, too, would soon learn to appreciate the importance of the time record, which is his ultimate protection against underpayment. Indeed, we believe thut the keeping of such records would be an advantage rather than a disadvantage to the industry and that the recognition of this fact would oe realised at an early stage. During the collection of the wage returns, it will be the duty of the official in charge by personal inspection of gardens to supervise the preparation and compilation of these returns and sub- sequently to institute a personal check of a small percentage so as to be ‘na position to arrive at a true understanding of present day conditions on a tea garden and the yield of the current rates. After the returns have been completed, it will be necessary to arrange for their proper tabulation and analysis. Type of Machinery. The tea industry, because of its past experience and its high degree of organisation, should be capable of devising a practicable scheme of wage-fixing machinery. We therefore recommend that at this stage Government should invite the industry to submit proposals for its con- sideration and approval. Government will then be in a position to make a final decision regarding the framing of the statute embodying the type of machinery considered to be most suitable for the purpose in view. On this point we do not propose to anticipate the decision by any specific recommendations, but we would call attention to certain cardinal points in the setting up of machinery of this kind. The main principle is the association of representatives of both employers and workers in the constitution of the machinery. Such representatives should be included in equal numbers, with an independent element chosen as far 8 possible in agreement with, or after consultation with, the representa- tives of both parties. We anticipate some difficulty here, in consequence of the absence of any organisation which can represent the interests of the workers. We do not, however, regard this as a sufficient reason for not adhering in the main to this ideal, with certain variations. The Wages Boards under the Ceylon ordinance are of this type and consist of five members in all-—an independent chairman, two employer and two worker representatives. There the representation of labour is met by the wppointment of kanganis. Not only do the exact equivalent of these men not exist in Assam, but we do not regard either them or their dearest prototype—the sardar—as being the most satisfactory type of labour representative available for a service of such vital importance

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