BOCHUM. 
'81 
The conditions of labour in the coal mines have been modified in some 
respects by the law which was passed by the Prussian Parliament in consequence 
of the Westphalia miners’ strike of 1905. Thus the system of “Nullen”— 
the disallowance of lorries containing an excessive amount of stone—has been 
abolished, and fines (which may not exceed 5&. for a single month) have been 
introduced instead. Workmen’s Committees (Ausschüsse) have been made 
obligatory in all collieries employing at least 100 men. The hours of hewers 
and trammers are now eight daily, the day being divided into three shifts : 
Morning shift, 5.80 to 1.30 ; afternoon shift, 2 to 10 ; night shift, 9 to 5. Those 
of other underground workers, drivers, &c., are nine, and surfacemen work 
10 hours, between 5.30 a.m. and 5.30 p.m. Fourteen days’ notice is universal, 
the notice taking effect at the end of a month. The wages books are made up 
to the month’s end, and wages are paid in the second half of the following 
month, though payments on account to the extent of half the amount due may 
be claimed during the first half. 
In the iron, steel and engineering works the usual hours are 10 daily, between 
six and six, with three intervals amounting to two hours, or, in one case, from 
7 to 6.30, with a single noon interval of an hour and a half. Wages are paid 
fortnightly, a week after the lists are made up, and a fortnight’s notice, tendered 
on the 1st or loth of the month, is required on either side. 
The coal miners are paid for the most part by piece (Gedinge), after 
deductions covering the cost price of explosives, light, &c. Most of the 
colliery companies provide dwellings for a large proportion of their men, 
especially where the mines are situated in the open country, and the rents for 
these dwellings, which are below the rents that would have to be paid in town, 
are deducted at the monthly settlements. The highest wages are those of the 
hewers, who earn, as a rule, 31s. per week of six shifts. Trammers earn from 
18s. 4¿. to 21s. Id. ; wall builders, 30s. 4d. to 34s. 2d. ; drivers, 19s. bd. to 
20s. bd. ; while adult workers at the pithead earn from Ids. 10¿¿. to 21s. 
Cokemakers earn from 24s. to 27s. The hewers and trammers form 50 per 
cent, of the entire workers in most mines, the other underground workers 
28*4 per cent., and the adult workers overhead 18*4 per cent. It has been 
estimated that during the period 1898 to 1904 the wages of the underground 
workers in the Dortmund district amounted to 46*6 per cent, of the value of the 
coal output, coke and briquettes being disregarded, this percentage comparing 
with 36 5 per cent, in the State mines of the Saar basin and 27*2 in Upper 
Silesia. The past 30 years have seen a steady upward movement in miners’ 
wages throughout the whole of Westphalia, and, while there have been 
temporary fluctuations, the level now reached has only once before been 
exceeded—viz., in 1900, which was a year of unparalleled prosperity in this 
industry. The following record of this movement of wages refers to one of the 
largest collieries in the Bochum district ; the figures represent the average 
earnings per shift for the whole of the men employed :— 
1876 
1877 
1878 
1879 
1880 
1881 
1882 
1883 
1884 
1885 
1886 
1887 
1888 
1889 
1890 
Year. 
s. d. 
2 11 
2 8 
2 10 
2 11 
2 10 
2 10 
2 9 
2 9 
2 10 
3 2 
3 6 
Year. 
1891 
1892 
1893 
1894 
1895 
1896 
1897 
1898 
1899 
1900 
1901 
1902 
1903 
1904 
1905 
s. d. 
3 8 
3 6 
3 2 
3 5 
3 10 
4 0 
4 2 
4 4 
4 3 
3 10 
4 2 
4 2 
4 3 
29088 
Figures not available. 
L