DETAILED  ACCOUNT  OF  VARIOUS  SCHEMES.

29

(originally  one-fifth),  and  those  employed  in  the  works,  warehouses, ­
  &c.,  five-sixths  (originally  four-fifths).  The  participants
are  divided  into  classes  according  to  the.  importance  of  the
work  done  hy  each,*  there  being  four  classes,  receiving
respectively  .1  share  each,  l\,  and  3  (originally  1,  2,  3,  and  4).
All  adult  employees  in  the  service  of  the  company  during  the  last
eighteen  months  are  entitled  to  participate  in  the  Bonus  Bund
(distributed  in  cash),  unless  they  have  been  absent,  during
the  preceding  twelve  months,  more  than  60  early  morning
quarters  or  240  hours  in  the  aggregate,f  except  with  the  sanction
in  writing  of  a  Managing  Director:  in  case  of  absence  due.  to
sickness  or  other  unavoidable  cause,  however,  the  Managing
Directors  may  grant  an  approximately  proportionate  amount  of
any  gratuity  to  which  the  employee  would  otherwise  have  been
entitled.  +
The  number  of  persons  employed  by  this  firm  in  1911  varied
between  803  and  840,  of  whom  some  600  were,  on  December  31,
1911,  entitled  to  participate  in  profits.  The  ratio  which  the  bonus
has  borne  to  the  wages  of  participants,  taking  an  average  of  the
bonuses  distributed  in  the  years  1886-1911  inclusive,  has  been
3‘07  per  cent.  Although  the  scheme  makes  no  provision  for  the
investment  of  the  bonus,  a  certain  number  of  employees  (64)  have
acquired  ordinary  shares  of  the  company  to  the  total  (nominal)
amount  of  £6,130,  and  these  employee-shareholders  possess  between ­
  them  T3  per  cent,  of  the  total  votes  that  might  be  given
at  a  shareholders’  meeting.  With  respect  to  the  results  obtained
hy  the  adoption  of  their  profit-sharing  scheme,  the  company  states
that:  “  We  think  that  the  scheme  induces  the  men  to  take  an
increased  interest;  in  their  work,  and  that  it  does  tend  to  promote
a  good  feeling  between  employers  and  employed.”

A  system  of  participation  in  profits,  which  embraces  not  alone
the  ordinary  employees  of  the  business,  but  also  the  directors  and
other  principal  officials,  and  which  presents  several  other  features
not  be  found  in  other  profit-sharing  schemes,  is  in  force  with
the  firm  of  Lever  Brothers,  Limited,  soap  manufacturers,  of
Port  Sunlight,  and  with  certain  associated  companies,  under  a
scheme  introduced  in  May,  1909,  and  altered  and  extended  in
June,  1910.  §
The  whole  of  the  ordinary  shares  in  Lever  Brothers,  Limited,
are  held  by  Sir  W.  H.  Lever  and  his  son,  and  the  scheme  was
introduced  on  the  initiative  of  Sir  W.  H.  Lever.  The  scheme  is
based  upon  the  creation  of  a  “  Co-partnership  trust,”  and  upon
the  issue  of  certificates  of  two  kinds,  called  respectively  “  partnership ­
  ”  and  “  preferential  ”  certificates.
By  the  Articles  of  Association  of  the  company  provision  is  made
whereby  any  moneys  proposed  to  be  distributed  by  way  of  dividend ­
  after  the  payment  of  preference  and  ordinary  dividends  *  *  *  §
*  Thus  a  mechanic  takes  “  1J  gratuities,”  while  a  labourer  takes  “  1  gratuity.”
f  Originally  the  disqualifying  period  of  absence  was  50  working  days'in
2  years  ;  then  (after  Nov.,  1890)  24  working  days  in  12  months  ;  altered  as  in
the  text  in  1898.
+  This  proviso  was  added  in  1904.
§  The  scheme  is  described  as  at  present  in  operation  (as  modified  in  1910).