8
BERLIN.
who play so important a part in the building trade owing to the custom of
building in brick, faced and ornamented with stucco, cement, and the like.
There is no uniformity in the duration of the Berlin workday. In
-the engineering and electrical trades it is variously 9, 9^, and 10 hours,
in the chemical industry 10, in the pianoforte and wood industries predominantly
9, and in the building trades the same, though the bricklayers and
carpenters are agitating for an eight-hour day. Most factories and workshops
work from (5 to 6 or 5.30, allowing, besides an hour or an hour and an half at
noon, short intervals for breakfast and for coffee in the afternoon—the latter
called " Vesper ”—but there is a disposition to abolish the afternoon break and
cease work sooner instead. It is the almost universal rule in Berlin for employers
and workpeople to be under no obligation to give notice. There are eight
recognised public holidays, and of these the working classes have the full benefit,
viz., New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Whit Monday, Ascension
Day, the Prussian National Penance Day, and Christmas Day and the day
following ; and a small section of the Social Democratic Trade Unionists insists
on observing May Day in spite of the penal measures taken against absentees
by the employers.
The employees in several factory industries are pressing for the introduction
of an eight hours day, yet though isolated firms have introduced it with
satisfactory results, there is no likelihood of any widespread reduction of
hours to this extent for a long time to come. Where the day has been reduced
to eight hours there is only a single break at noon, the breakfast interval and
the old-fashioned “ Vesper ” being abolished, and it is found that a considerable
amount of time is saved by the abolition of stoppages. A leading engineering
firm, employing several thousand men, resorted to an eight hours day in several
departments as a temporary measure with a view to running double shifts, and
the experiment succeeded so well that it is proposed to make the change
permanent. On this subject the Berlin Chamber of Commerce reports in its
review of the economic events of the year 1906 :—“ The lack of workpeople was
in part caused by the reduction in the hours of labour in many industries on the
pressure of the workpeople and their organisations. Thus the daily duration of
work in the State and municipal undertakings in the machine branch and in
allied industries is now 9 hours where it was 9J and 10 hours a short time ago.
Stubborn opposition is shown by the workmen to overtime, even when high
wages are offered. Opinions differ as to whether the curtailment of hours is
equalised by the higher productivity of labour. One large establishment in the
engineering industrv takes the affirmative view. . . . It is more frequently
contended, however, that the workpeople are contented with their past earnings,
which they have succeeded in maintaining in spite of the curtailment of hours
owing to the simultaneous increase of the time or piece rates, and they do not
show the least desire to earn more by piece work in the same time or willingness
to work overtime. This may in part be a result of individual disposition, but it
must chiefly be attributed to the labour organisations, which, by holding out the
fear of the piece rates being reduced, induce the workers not to exceed their past
output. It is also hoped by this means, and by the refusal to work overtime
to increase the demand for labour.”
The rates of wages ruling in Berlin are relatively high in the skilled trades
though against this advantage must be set the fact that rents and the general
costs of living are also high. The piece system is almost universal where
skilled labour is employed. In the engineering trade the highest wao-es
are paid in certain branches of the electrical industry, though owin^ to the
large inrush of workpeople the general rates now ruling in this industry do not
exceed the rates in the engineering trade as a whole to the extent they once did.
Here piecework is general, the number of hours worked ranges from 54 to 60
per week, and there is, as a consequence, great diversity in earning. Thus
moulders who in ordinary machine shops earn from 34s. to 38s. lOofTper week
earn in electrical works from 38s. to 40s. 6(7. ; fitters in machine shops earn from
30s. to 33s., and in electrical works 32s. 5(7. to 36s. ; turners in machine shops
earn from 37s. 3d. to 38s. 10d., and in electrical works 35s. 8(7. to 42s • smiths
in machine shops from 30s. to 31s. 2d., and in electrical works from 31s. 4d. to
42s. 6(7. ; pattern-makers in machine shops earn from 36s. to 37s and in
electrical works from 37s. 10(7. to 45s. 10(7., while labourers earn from 20s to
23s. 7(7. and 22s. 9(7. to 24s. respectively.
