Cost of living in German towns

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 866449027

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-93831

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Cost of living in German towns

Place of publication:: London

Publisher:: Stat. Off.

Year of publication:: 1908

Scope:: 1 Online-Ressource (LXI, 548 Seiten)

Collection:: Economics Books

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BERLIN. 15 “ small industry,” including the handicrafts, or to the unskilled occupations. Employers in the " heavy ” engineering and metal trades resist the innovation as an attempt to impose the principle of uniformity of payment where remuneration has hitherto been determined by individual capacity, and only in an indirect and incomplete form are wages agreements introduced in these trades. This is where wages disputes between individual firms and sections of their employees are settled on conditions which are reduced to writing and signed by both parties. It is not uncommon for such agreements to be printed and circulated by the men’s organisations, and they represent at present the nearest approximation in the large productive industries to the wages agree ment as generally understood. In illustration of the temper which characterises the relationships between employers and employees it is worthy of note that in the more recent wages agreements, not a few of which are the direct outcome of strikes, it is not uncommon to find the stipulation : " Workpeople may not be penalised for having brought about the conclusion of this agreement.” On the other hand, a two years’ agreement was concluded in February, 1907, between the employers in the yellow metal industry and the Hirsch - Duncker Machine-builders’ and Metalworkers’ Union, by which the latter withdrew its demand for minimum rates of wages and a wages agreement for the entire industry " because the competition of the provinces and of foreign countries at present makes it impossible to apply arrangements of the kind to all undertakings,” and provision was made for the settlement of future disputes by arbitration in the event of employers and workpeople failing to come to terms. The endeavour which employers are making to protect themselves by insur ance against the losses incidental to labour disputes, whatever their issue, has so far been confined in Berlin to several industries, but the movement appears likely to attract widespread support in the near future, though its permanent success will depend on practical difficulties which as yet there has been no opportunity of fairly facing. The Association of German Employers’ Unions, the Union of German Metal Manufacturers, and the Employers’ Federation for the Building Trade have been the first organisations to move in the matter. The Insurance Company formed in connection with the first of these organisations provides for compensation being paid to its members in the event of strikes, and also of lock-outs where the latter are enforced by resolution of the parent Association ; moreover, if, owing to a partial strike, other portions of an undertaking are brought to a standstill, the claim for compensation applies in respect of this indirect area of dispute. Employers can only insure themselves jointly as members of associations, and the entrance fee is 2s. per £100 of the aggregate wages bill, with Is. per £100 as a yearly contribution. In the event of a stoppage of his works by strike or sanctioned lock-out, an employer may claim compensation, and it becomes the duty of the board of control to consider all the circumstances and to award such an amount as it thinks proper. The maximum indemnity is 12J per cent, of the average daily wages of the workpeople affected for each day of the stoppage, but only to the number of 1,000 ; from 1,001 to 2,000 the compensation is reduced to 10 per cent. ; from 2,001 to 4,000 to per cent. ; from 4,001 to 8,000 to 5 per cent. ; and over 8,000 to 2\ per cent. By way of illustration, an association of employers or an individual employer with 4,000 workpeople, paid at 4s. per da^, would receive 12£ per cent, of 4s. per man daily on the first 1,000 men = £25 ; 10 per cent, of 4s. on the next 1.000 men = £20 ; and 7J per cent, of 4s. on the remaining 2,000 men = £30 ; a total of £75 per day. The premium, on the basis of Is. per £100 of wages, assum ing 300 working days at 4s. to the year, would have been £120. The scheme ofthe Metal Manufacturers’ Union is on the same lines except that the entrance fee is 6<i. per £100 of the wages and the yearly contribution 6s. per £100, while the maximum compensation payable is 25 per cent, of the average daily wages of the first 1,000 workmen, 20 per cent, from 1,001 to 2,000, 15 per cent, from 2.001 to 4,000, 10 per cent, from 4,001 to .8,000, and 5 per cent, from 8,000 upwards. Here the maximum compensation on 4,000 workmen with the same earnings as before would be £150 daily, wdiile the yearly contribution would be £720. The scheme of insurance for the building trade provides for a yearly contribution by employers of 2s. per £100 of wages, to be increased to 4s. if necessary, wdiile the maximum compensation that can be granted is 25 per

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