DRESDEN.
191
case of two very important groups of trades—clothing and building—work is
for the most part carried on under conditions which exclude these trades from
the factory inspectors’ yearly enumerations, so that only a rough estimate can be
formed of their relative importance from the data obtained on the occasion of
the general industrial census of 14th June, 1895. According to that census
there were in Dresden 6,806 persons employed in garment making, 3,600 in
boot and shoemaking, and 16,000 in the building trades, and these numbers
would have been considerably greater if they had included the establishments
situated in the out-lying parishes which have since been brought within the
municipal area of Dresden.
General agreements between organisations of employers on the one hand
and of workpeople on the other, fixing conditions of labour, exist for practically
the whole of the building trades, as well as for the printing and brewing trades,
and for coppersmiths and carters. From copies of these agreements it has been
possible to compute the predominant rates of wages for competent workmen in
the trades concerned, since provision is in all cases made for the rate of wages
to be paid per hour, day, or week, as well as for the number of hours constituting
the working week. In the other branches of private industry carried on
in Dresden, owing to the opposition of the employers, no advance whatever has
yet been made towards the regulation of working conditions by collective
agreements. In the case of these trades, therefore, the data regarding wages
have had to be obtained from the pay-sheets of the principal industrial establishments,
and as the majority of the operatives in these establishments are paid
on the piece-work system, the weekly rate represents as a rule the earnings for
a full week without working overtime. It is also to be noted that in some of
the most important of the local industries—more especially the cigarette,
chocolate, sweet, condensed milk, and photographic paper industries—the bulk
of the operatives are women and girls, so that the wages given below, being those
of adult males only, cannot be regarded as typical for the trades in question.
Wages and Hours of Labour in the Principal Occupations, October, 1905.
Weekly Wages.
Building Trades* :—
Bricklayers and Masons
Hod Carriers
Carpenters
Joiners ...
Stone-cutters
Stucco-workers
Paperhangers
Plumbers
Painters ...
Labourers (other than Hod Carriers)
29s. 7d.
32s. Qd.
31s. 2d.
24s. 5d.
27s. to 28s.
27s. 6d.
23s. 2d.
Metal and Engineering Trades :—
Machine Construction :—
Moulders
Fitters ... ••• • «•
Turners ...
Planers ...
Pattern-makers...
Labourers
Manufacture of Kitchen Fittings :
Tinsmiths
Fitters ...
Turners ...
Metal Stampers
Varnishers
Japanners
Labourers
Manufacture of Photographic Apparatus
Joiners ...
Case-makers
Unskilled workpeople
Coppersmiths
30s. to 35s.
25s. „ 27s.
27s. „ 30s.
23s.
28s.
27s.
31s.
30s.
30s.
27s.
26s.
18s.
24s.
Weekly Hours of
Labour.
58
50
52
52
58
55
58
58-60
58-60
58-60
58-60
58
58
58
58
58
52
52
52
60
* The wages and hours oí labour stated for the building trades are for a full week in
summer.
