PAPER-BAG MAKING.
Business No. 1.
Conditions.—Cap bag-making is all piecework, except for beginners, who start at 4s. In fifteen months, manager says they should be able to earn 10s. per week by piecework.
Average Wage.—13s. to 15s. Manager considered that in heavy cap bag-making 19s. was top wage ever taken by an extra good hand in extra busy time.
Eighteen girls were employed in cap bag-making.
A rougher class of girls were employed in the sugar bag department, which is heavier work. The wages were higher for this heavier work. The average wage approached 15s.
The bag-stringing machine was the only machinery employed in this business. It was worked by a foreman and forewoman. No married women were employed. The clerks were all women, taking 20s. per week. The manager preferred them to men because they were content with that wage as a maximum.
Outwork given to old workers under known conditions, as since the bags are for the grocery trade it is important to know home conditions. Same price as for inworkers, but outworkers found their own paste and brushes, etc.
Hours.—8 a.m. to 7 p.m., 1 hour dinner, 20 minutes tea. Saturday, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Remarks.—The contrast between this business and the business next door (see following case) was very striking as regards relation between manager and employees.
Business No. 2.
Girls are employed here in bag-making and table processes. The employer considered that the girls could average 9s. to 10s. He gave the highest wage for machine laying-on, which begins at 7s. and goes up to 12s. and 13s. This wage was given because of the danger of the process (I think the machine was the "Arab," which in union houses women may not work "because of the danger"). Manager believed a good many of his hands were married women. He did not care whether they were married or not. The forewoman and the girl in the warehouse were each taking 11s.
Homework.—Given out in busy times to whoever applied, without further precautions. Manager thought no outworker took more than 4s. to 5s. per week.
Hours.—8 a.m. to 6.30 p.m.
Fifty-two and a half hours per week regular time. Just now (December) they were working ten hours per day.
August slackest month. Manager generally turned off hands then. Manager spoke of difficulty of getting workers—he could not get boys to feed the machines, for example, because it led to nothing.
Manager said he "conducted his business on purely business principles" and got his work done as cheaply as he could.