... If the maximum output is to be secured and maintained for any length of time, a weekly period of rest must be allowed. Except for quite short periods, continuous work, in their view, is a profound mistake and does not pay—output is not increased.... Some action must be taken in regard to continuous labor and excessive hours of work if it is desired to secure and maintain, over a long period, the maximum output....
Should the early stoppage of all Sunday work be considered for any reason difficult if not impossible to bring about, the committee trust that it will at least be practicable to lay down the principle that Sunday labor is a serious evil which should be steadily and systematically discouraged and restricted.
For women and for “young persons,” the need of abolishing Sunday work and granting week end and other holidays was even more urgent than for adult males. “The committee are strongly of opinion that for women and girls a portion of Saturday and the whole of Sunday should be available for rest, and that the periodic factory holidays should not, on any account, be omitted.”[173]
The committee went on record at this time in favor of a return to the prewar legal standard of weekly hours. “Continuous work in excess of the normal legal limit of sixty hours per week ought to be discontinued as soon as practicable,” though the hours permitted in any one day might vary somewhat more than the factory acts allowed. There was, for instance, “little objection to such moderate overtime during the week as can be compensated for by an earlier stop on Saturdays.” But in general, “the need for overtime amongst women and girls is much less pressing than it is for men, they are rarely employed on highly skilled work, and where there is still a good reserve of labor there should be little difficulty in gradually introducing shifts.... [The committee] strongly urge that wherever practicable overtime should be abandoned in favor of shifts.”
Three systems of hours were found in operation in munition plants. There was the single shift of thirteen-fourteen hours including meal times, which was known as the “overtime system,” two twelve hour and three eight hour shifts. The committee considered that in the long run the latter yielded the best results with women workers.
The committee recommend the adoption of the three shifts system without overtime, wherever a sufficient supply of labor is available. Where the supply is governed by difficulties of housing and transit, the committee are of opinion that every effort should be made to overcome these difficulties before a less serviceable system be continued or adopted....
They [eight hour shifts] involve little or no strain on the workers; the periods during which machinery stand idle for meals are very much reduced, while significant statements have been put before the committee claiming beneficial effects upon output.
Observations were later made for the committee of a group of nearly a hundred women over a period of about thirteen months, during which time their actual weekly working hours were reduced from sixty-six on seven days to forty-five on six days. Yet output arose nine per cent. The committee concluded:
For women engaged in moderately heavy lathe work a 50 hour week yields as good an output as a 66 hour week, and a considerably better one than a 77 hour week.[174]
In regard to night work, however, the committee felt that the exigencies of war time prevented a return to a really desirable standard. “The employment of women at night is, without question, undesirable, yet now it is for a time inevitable.” It demanded special care and supervision and the use of such safeguards as would reduce its risks to the minimum. “In no case should the hours worked at night exceed sixty per week.” Whether continuous night shifts or alternate day and night shifts should be worked was a matter to be settled by local considerations.