The foreman’s reply to the complaining one is no longer: “If you don’t like it you can leave it.” She can’t.

If she tries, she will find that no other employer will be allowed to engage her, and unless she can persuade a Munitions Court to grant a leaving certificate, six weeks’ idleness must be her portion. And we know what that means to many a woman worker. Long before the six weeks are up, her little treasures, if she has any, are gone and God help her then.

... One great danger of the new conditions is that sweating and bad conditions may be stereotyped.

The other day a munition worker, who was being paid 12s. weekly, had a chance of doing the same work for another employer at 1 pound weekly, but the Court refused her permission to make the change. And thus we have a concrete case of the State turning the lock in the door of the sweaters’ den.

Some people hold very strongly that these leaving certificate clauses of the Munitions Act are altogether unnecessary. They hamper and irritate men and women alike, and so far from accelerating output, may actually diminish it. Under the Defence of the Realm Act, it is already illegal for employers to incite munition workers to change their employment, and that should have been sufficient.

The stringency of the leaving certificate clauses in their original form was indicated by the fact that in the munitions act amendment of January, 1916, several conditions were added making them more favorable to the workers. If an employer refused a certificate when a worker was dismissed, or failed to give a week’s notice or a week’s pay in lieu of notice, except on temporary work, the tribunal could now make him pay as much at £5 (about $24) for the loss of time, unless it appeared that the worker was guilty of misconduct to secure dismissal. A number of other conditions under which a certificate must be granted were laid down by the amending act. They included failure to provide employment for three or more days, failure to pay standard wage rates, behavior of the employer or his agent toward the worker in a way to justify his leaving, end of apprenticeship and existence of another opening where the worker could be used “with greater advantage to the national interest.” Even The Woman Worker admitted of the amendment act: “Certainly in many ways it is an improvement over the old one. The workers have new rights; and if they are strong enough and clever enough to take advantage of them much can be done.”

Difficulties still arose, however. Though on some government contracts, such as clothing, the system was not in force, it was often believed that the cards were required on every form of government work. They were indeed necessary in so many factories that employers hesitated to take workers without them, which made it hard to secure work in a munitions plant for the first time. Often the workers did not know their rights under the act to secure certificates or damages from the tribunals under certain conditions. It was finally decided that dismissal because of trade union membership was illegal, “tending to restrict output.” By the help of the Federation of Women Workers three girls dismissed for joining the federation secured compensation for their dismissal from the local Munitions Tribunal, and the firm was finally fined for the act by the central court.

Nevertheless, in spite of all concessions, which officials of the Ministry believed had removed the admitted injustices of the act in its original form, the certificate system continued to cause much irritation among the workers. The official commissions to investigate the industrial unrest prevailing in the summer of 1917 named the operation of the system among its chief causes. It was because of the workers’ protests that the second amendment to the munitions act, passed August 21, 1917, gave the Ministry of Munitions power to abolish the “leaving certificate” system if it thought it could be done “consistently with the national interest.” Trade union leaders informed the government that they could not keep their members in line unless the system was given up. The Ministry issued an order abolishing the certificate after October 15, 1917.[111] Workers were merely required to remain on some kind of war work, except by permission of the Ministry, and at least a week’s notice or a week’s wages was necessary before leaving. No report was made as to how the change worked. It remained in force until two days before the armistice, when an order allowed employes to shift from munitions to nonwar work.

Munitions Tribunals

In addition to appeals for leaving certificates, the Munitions Tribunals dealt with breaches of workshop discipline, and with cases of disobedience to the instructions of the Ministry of Munitions. These courts were set up throughout the country. Each consisted of a chairman, chosen by the Ministry of Munitions, and four or more “assessors,” taken from a panel, half of whom represented employers and half employes. The “assessors” served in rotation, a session at a time. There were two classes of tribunals, “general,” dealing with all offenses, and “local,” with those for which the penalty was less than £5 (about $24). The latter handled the great majority of the cases, settling 3,732 between July and December, 1916, whereas the general tribunals took up only 182. Under the original munitions act the general tribunals had the power to imprison for nonpayment of fines, but this aroused such resentment among the workers that it was taken away by the first amendment act.