AN ACCIDENT.
Notwithstanding the large number of vehicles which the Society had on the road, it had been wonderfully free from accidents of a serious nature. Hitherto the killing of the Tramway Company’s horse had been the most serious, and the results of that accident had been serious, not so much because of the accident itself, as because of the litigation which followed. Early in 1889, however, an accident occurred on the Albert Bridge, which although, fortunately, not so serious as it might have been, yet served to impress on the vanmen in the service of the Society the necessity for caution when driving through the streets of the city. Two men were run down on the bridge by one of the Society’s vans and injured, and the vanman was arrested and fined. The Society agreed to pay the fine, and also settled with the injured men for £10, but the vanman was dismissed from the service of the Society.
About this time a petition was again received from the vanmen with reference to holidays and Sunday labour. The men wished the three days’ holidays which they were allowed increased to six days, while they also wished payment for attending to the horses on Sundays. The committee could not see their way to make any further concession of holidays, but they agreed that men who had to spend a full day in the stable on Sundays should receive a day’s pay. This was probably the first occasion in Glasgow on which it was recognised that wages paid to vanmen and carters were for a six-day week, and that work on the seventh day should be paid for. In this matter as in so many others the Baking Society were pioneers, and it was not until more than twenty years had passed that the trade union was able to enforce all over the city the rule that Sunday work in the stables should be paid for.