In January, 1916, the munitions amendment act gave the Ministry of Munitions more definite control over the introduction of these provisions, such as it had over working hours. The Ministry was empowered to regulate working conditions for females in establishments where the leaving certificate system was in force. In matters already regulated by the factory acts the concurrence of the Secretary of State was required.
Coincident with its enlarged powers and with the recommendations of the Health of Munitions Workers Committee, the Ministry started in January, 1916, an extensive “welfare department” as part of the labor regulation section. Its director was Mr. B. Seebohm Rowntree, a manufacturer well known for his social studies and for the development of welfare schemes in his own establishment. The aim of the department was to “raise the well being” of women and child munition workers to as high a point as possible in all factories in which the Ministry had power to regulate working conditions.[194] Numerous specialists were attached to the department, such as physicians for work on the prevention of industrial poisonings, and “welfare officers” to visit the factories. After their inspections these officials made recommendations for changes, which the department then urged on the firms. It was said that it seldom proved necessary to use the legal powers. The department worked in close cooperation with the Home Office, which was in charge of factory inspection.
Some of the principal factors in working conditions to which the department was directed to give attention were clean workrooms, the suitability of occupation to individual workers, factory “canteens,” proper hours and rest periods, wages and the prevention of dangers to health and safety. The department’s standard for hours was a working period which “conserved strength, gave a chance for rest and recreation” and was not longer than those recommended by the Health of Munition Workers Committee. Wages must be sufficient to cover “physical needs and reasonable recreation.” “Amenities,” washing accommodations and cloakrooms, for instance, should also be provided, “such as men and women coming from decent homes may reasonably demand.” The department was to “enquire” into all these matters, but not necessarily to deal with them all directly. For instance, the interdepartmental hours committee was the final authority on cases of reduction of hours.
In industry outside munitions work the growing importance ascribed to “welfare” provisions was reflected a few months later in a part of the “Police, Factories, etc. (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act” of August 3, 1916. The Home Secretary was empowered by this measure to issue special orders “for securing the welfare of the workers” when the nature of the work or “special circumstances” made it advisable. Such orders might cover either a single establishment or a special class, all the workers in the establishments in question or merely some special class. The welfare provisions might be compulsory only when applied for by some specified proportion of the workers. Such improvements in working conditions above the ordinary statutory requirements might include “arrangements for preparing or heating and taking meals; the supply of drinking water; the supply of protective clothing; ambulance and first aid arrangements; the supply and use of seats in workrooms; facilities for washing; accommodations for clothing; arrangements for supervision of workers.”
In one respect, however, labor leaders believed that the bill contained a backward step. It permitted deductions from wages to pay for the additional benefits, though during its passage through Parliament the labor members secured considerable safeguards of this power. Contributions could be used only to pay for benefits “which, in the opinion of the Secretary of State, could not reasonably be required to be provided by the employer alone, and if two-thirds of the workers affected ... assent.” Aside from the dangers of abuse under this provision the measure seems to provide a method for securing decided improvements in working conditions and for arrangements better suited to the varying needs of different industries than is possible under general statutes.
How far the various rules and recommendations actually resulted in better working conditions is an interesting question. Apparently considerable gains were made, though further advances were still practicable. In the munitions industry, for instance, national factories are said to have “naturally adopted welfare in all its phases,”[195] while the arrangement that improvements could be made out of what would otherwise be taken as excess profits tax was a strong inducement to action by “controlled” establishments. But in the early months of 1916 soon after its formation the welfare department of the Ministry of Munitions undertook, in cooperation with the factory inspectors, a survey of “controlled” and “national” munitions plants to see which ones most needed its attention. At that time, out of 1,396 plants covered, 31 per cent graded “A,” 49 per cent “B,” and 20 per cent “C.”
It is well to grasp the point that B and C conditions meant in varying combinations partial or complete lack of messroom accommodations or facilities for cooking food; inadequate or nonexistent cloakrooms and washing appliances even for dusty and greasy occupations; lack of supply of seats; need of first aid and rest rooms; supervision even of numerous young girls by men only, and other defects in factories mostly working twelve hour shifts, and reached often by considerable journeys from the workers’ homes.[196]
Allowance must be made, however, for “great progress” during the year. Undoubtedly a number of the factories class B ... have qualified for class A, and to a lesser extent this is true of class “C.”[197] In a similar vein the Women’s Industrial News said in April, 1916, that the standard of comfort advocated by the Health of Munition Workers Committee for restrooms, cloakrooms and canteens was “rare” but that “it was possible to hope for a gradual improvement in conditions.” A study of women in the engineering industry, made in the middle of 1917 and written from a critical point of view, not likely to overestimate improvements, stated that, “in one factory after another the essential precautions of health are enforced, including the appointment of women medical officers and provision of hot breakfasts and milk in the ‘danger’ sheds” while new factories are built with every up-to-date canteen, restroom, sanitary, heating and lighting or other convenience.[198] In June, 1917, Dr. Addison, then Minister of Munitions, reported canteen accommodations in national and controlled establishments for about 810,000 workers, there being a total of some 1,750,000 persons employed. In October the Health of Munition Workers Committee stated that canteen accommodations had been provided for 920,000 or 45 per cent of all munition makers.
To be sure, women workers have had not a few grievances about the canteens. A delegation of organized women workers called on government officials in December, 1916, to protest against the poor food and the “rough and ready manner” in which it was served.[199] One canteen was described as so third-rate that “any bloomin’ good pull-up for car men is a regular Hotel Cecil to it.” But the numerous canteens run by one of the religious organizations for women were highly praised by the workers themselves.
The Dilution Bulletins give some interesting and significant results secured in munitions work through betterments in working conditions. In one factory it was estimated that 2,500 hours’ work weekly was saved by prompt attention to slight accidents and illness. Another firm declared that free meals more than repaid in increased output. In another, output improved after good washrooms and cloakrooms were put in. Seats with backs increased production 10 per cent in one case. The Health of Munition Workers Committee ascribed both “direct and indirect” benefits to the installation of canteens. “Among the former has been a marked improvement in the health, nutrition and physical condition of the workers, a reduction in fatigue and sickness, less absence and broken time, less tendency to alcoholism and an increased efficiency and output; among the latter has been a saving of the time of the workmen, a salutary though brief change from the workshop, greater contentment, increased opportunity for recreation and a better midday ventilation of the workshop.”[200]