26 . CHAPTER III. ‘ 
of the jobber with even more submissive material on which to exercise 
it. We recommend that, where women are engaged in substantial 
numbers, there should invariably be employed at least one educated 
woman in charge of their welfare and supervision throughout the factory. 
She should be responsible to the labour officer, where there is one, and to 
the manager where there is not, for the engagement and dismissal of all 
the female staff, whether permanent or temporary. If naskins are 
employed they should be under her immediate control. It is im- 
portant that she should be remunerated on a salary and not on a com- 
mission basis, and on a scale likely to attract the right type of woman 
for work of such responsibility. We found this system in force in one 
or two large Indian factories with excellent results. 
Turnover. 
There is another direction in which action can be taken to 
diminish the jobber’s power, and our recommendation here should lead 
to other important results. At present the figures of turnover in many 
Indian factories are remarkable. In a large number of factories the 
fresh employees engaged each month are at least 5%, of the establishment, 
so that, in a period of less than 2 years, the fresh engagements exceed in 
number the total labour force. It is this feature which leads so many 
employers to suppose that the average factory worker is an agriculturalist 
devoting a short period of his life to industry. Actually most of the 
workers who are taken on as “fresh hands ” have been previously em- 
ployed in the same centre and often in the same mill. In few factories 
is there a serious attempt to register workers and to maintain touch with 
those who leave for holidays or are otherwise absent. We met widespread 
complaints of “ absenteeism ”, but this is an omnibus term covering 
absence from many causes. There are few managers who can say precisely 
which workers are away because they are idling, which are kept away by 
sickness, and which have gone on holiday meaning to return. Even 
workers who have left, with no intention of returning, may be treated for 
a time as absentees. 
Holidays. 
Where the jobbers are in the habit of exacting a bribe on all 
fresh engagements, it is to their interest to secure that such engagements 
are numerous. As some employers pointed out to us, there is a close con- 
nection between bribery and turnover, and we believe that the jobbers 
are responsible for much of the apparent restlessness of the operative, and 
his movements from factory to factory. Further, as few mills are willing 
to recognise a worker on his return from sa holiday as an old employee, 
there is no reason why he should feel any loyalty to a particular mill. 
We consider that employers generally should recognise the need and the 
value of the holidays taken by so many workers. We recommend that 
workers should be encouraged to apply for definite periods of leave, and 
should go with a promise that on their return at the proper time they will 
be able to resume their old work. The mere grant of regular leave, even 
when no allowance is attached to it. would mark a great advance on the