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

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

Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter IV. - Hours in factories

Collection:: Economics Books

19 CHAPTER 1V, that, generally speaking, the short working week is associated with closer attention to work and stricter supervision than the long one. Further, in no case did those workers who were working a short week with stricter discipline suggest that they would like a longer and less intense day or more intervals. As a matter of fact, the attempt in 1922 to increase the interval of half an hour in an 8% hour day in engineering shops in Bengal and elsewhere was defeated by the operatives. Similarly, in some Bombay cotton mills which, prior to 1922, had worked the operatives for an 8 hour shift without any interval, the introduction of an hour’s statutory interval led to a strike. Nor did a single employer who had adopted a short day suggest that it would be better to lengthen the day and require & correspondingly lower standard of concentration. Finally, few would be prepared to assert that the cotton mill operative, when compared with workers doing a shorter and more intense day, shows that greater con- tentment which the longer and less intense day is supposed to yield. Effect on Wages. Bo far as the operatives are concerned, we cannot view the pos- sibility of a reduction in earnings without misgiving. But we believe that, if too large a reduction of hours is not attempted, the effect will be small, and it is relevant to observe that real wages have recently risen appreciably and are now higher than they have been for some years. Even if a fall in wages results, it need not be permanent. With greater time for genuine relaxation, many workers would probably require shorter holi- days and fewer days of absence than at present, and could thus reduce the loss which these breaks impose on them. Many employers believe firmly that the average operative desires to earn merely sufficient for his bare needs, and is unwilling to earn more by doing more work, i.e., that he prefers leisure to a margin in wages. We discuss this view elsewhere and cannot subscribe to it in the form in which it is usually presented. At the same time, the great importance which the Indian worker attaches to adequate leisure is a truth underlying it. It is also important to remem- ber that, in the cotton mill industry in particular, there are still opportun- ities for increased effort on the part of the operative. So far as we are aware, there is no industrial country, except possibly China, where so little is expected from him in effort and so much in attendance at the factory. The average number of looms given to each weaver in India is less than two and one spinner is ordinarily required for each side of a frame. Attempts have recently been made to advance beyond the usual standard and, even with existing hours, it should be possible to secure improvement. We believe that, apart from any reduction of hours, em- ployers will steadily increase their demand for efficiency from the operative. Shorter hours should supply both an incentive and an enlarged opportun- ity for raising the general standard of work. Previous History. The maintenance of the existing economic position of the industry and its workers, in spite of a statutory reduction of hours, depends main- ly on the extent to which the hours of actual work can be compressed into

Access restriction

Copyright

fullscreen: Report of the Royal Commission on Labour in India

Monograph

Chapter

Table of contents

Download

Monograph

Chapter

This page

Image fragment

Citation links

Citation recommendation