Denkschrift der Ersten k. k. privilegirten Donau-Dampfschiffahrts-Gesellschaft zur Erinnerung ihres fünfzigjährigen Bestandes

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 844100943

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-94613

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Denkschrift der Ersten k. k. privilegirten Donau-Dampfschiffahrts-Gesellschaft zur Erinnerung ihres fünfzigjährigen Bestandes

Place of publication:: Wien

Publisher:: Selbstverl.

Year of publication:: 1881

Scope:: 1 Online-Ressource (95 S)

Collection:: Economics Books

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28 IX.—PRIVATE FIRMS AND COMPANIES. which they are employed, an example may be found in the scheme which has been in force since 1887 on the Home Farm of Lady Wantage (about 5,000 acres lying between Wantage and Hendred, Berks). The plan adopted is to pay rent, interest at 5 per cent, on capital, rates and taxes, purchase of stock and other working expenses, and wages, and then to allot a portion of the surplus balance as the share of the employees, the remaining profits going to their employer. For the purposes of the profit-sharing scheme the profits are calculated on the working, not of a single year, but of a series of years. Thus, in those years in which profits are made, the share of the employees is partly paid over to them at once, partly credited to a reserve fund which is available for the payment of a bonus, if, say once in every four years, a bad year occurs in which no profits are earned. The net balance of profit earned in the series of years being thus ascertained, the losses made in the bad years being deducted from the profits made in. the good years, one quarter of such net balance goes to the employees. The accounts of the farm are audited by a firm of accountants, and the certified balance-sheet can be seen by any employee. “ The bonus is distributed in shares of so many shillings each, the farm manager getting at the rate of ten shares to one, the ordinary labourers one share, and boys half a share each.” All male employees who have worked on the farm for at least two years receive bonus; but the female labourers are not given any share in profits, the reason given for their exclusion from participation being that most of the work which they do is piece-work. The number of persons (of either sex) employed on the farm varies from 188 to 238. The number of employees who, at December 31, 1911, were entitled to participate in profits, was 147. The ratio which the bonus has borne to the wages of participants, taking an average of the bonuses distributed in the years 1888-1911 inclusive, has been about 4‘8 per cent. In regard to the effects produced by the adoption of the profit-sharing scheme, the agent for the estate observes as follows:—“ I think the giving of the bonus has been the principal reason why we have never had the least trouble with the labourers on this estate, although there are many other boons for which they ought to be, and are, grateful.” In November, 1884, Messrs. Blundell, Spence & Co., Limited, colour, paint, and varnish manufacturers, oil boilers and refiners, and anti-fouling composition makers, of Hull and London, adopted a system of Profit-sharing. From the clear profit of the year, i-e., “ the net amount available for dividend, reserve, or carrying forward, after deduction of all outgoings whatever” there is deducted a sum sufficient to pay 5 per cent, on the preferred, and 6 per cent, on the ordinary shares; of the remainder a definite fraction is devoted to the payment of “ gratuities ” to the employees. This fraction was, under the original scheme, one- tenth; but under successive revisions of the scheme the propor tion was raised to one-eighth, and in May, 1912, to one-fifth. Of this bonus or “ gratuity ” fund the office staff takes one-sixth

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