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.
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