Labour policy—false and true

by Lynden Livingston Macassey

CHAPTER XIII
NORMAL GOVERNMENT LABOUR POLICY

Government Departments Concerned—Conciliation and Arbitration—Whitley Councils—Industry’s Own Conciliation Machinery—State Conciliation Machinery—Statutory Minimum Wages—Employment Exchanges—The Work of the Ministry of Labour.

Before the creation of the Ministry of Labour in 1916, a general surveillance of labour conditions was maintained by the Chief Industrial Commissioner’s Department of the Board of Trade. The Ministry of Labour was formed in 1916 and absorbed the Chief Industrial Commissioner’s Department, and took over also from the Board of Trade the administration of Unemployment Insurance, Trade Boards and Labour Exchanges.

Government Departments Concerned

The Statutes under which the Ministry of Labour acts are: Conciliation Act, 1896, and Industrial Courts Act, 1919, in relation to conciliation in, and settlement of, labour disputes; Labour Exchanges Act, 1909—establishment and administration of Employment Exchanges; Unemployment Insurance Acts—insurance against unemployment; Trade Boards Acts, 1909-1918—fixing of statutory minimum rates of wages. In addition, the Ministry has a number of temporary duties such as the training of men disabled in the war and of youths whose apprenticeship was interrupted by war service. Certain other branches of labour legislation are administered by other Government Departments as shown below: (1) The Factories and Workshops Acts and allied legislation dealing with the hours of employment of women and young persons, the health and safety of the workers, dangerous and unhealthy trades, etc., and the Shops Acts, regulating the hours of employment of shop assistants, by the Home Office; (2) Employment so far as dependent on the Education Acts, by the Board of Education; (3) The Mines Acts, regulating the hours and conditions of employment of persons employed underground in coal mines, by the Board of Trade (Mines Department); (4) The Health Insurance Acts, dealing with the insurance of workpeople against sickness, and the Workmen’s Compensation Acts, dealing with compensation in the event of accidents arising out of, and in the course of, a workman’s employment, by the Ministry of Health.

Conciliation and Arbitration

The general machinery for settlement of industrial disputes in this country by conciliation and arbitration is composed of (1) conciliation machinery within the industry, (2) State machinery. The former consists of voluntary machinery comprising (i) Joint Industrial Councils—these being bodies upon which organized employers and workpeople are equally represented, set up in a number of industries in accordance with the recommendations of a Committee appointed in 1916 and presided over by the Right Hon. J. H. Whitley, M.P., now the Speaker of the House of Commons; (ii) permanent voluntary conciliation boards—an older form of joint body equally representative of employers and workpeople, but differing from the Joint Industrial Councils in that the conciliation boards tend to confine their activities mainly to questions of wages and working conditions while the Councils take into consideration all matters appertaining to the industry; (iii) recognized procedure arranged by organizations of employers and workpeople, not having a formally constituted conciliation board, providing for the discussion of differences as and when they arise.

Whitley Councils

Up to the end of 1921 Joint Industrial Councils had been established in 73 industries and services; 15 are at present in suspense; 1 has been absorbed by another Council. In addition, there are 10 active Interim Industrial Reconstruction Committees in trades to which the Whitley Scheme cannot as yet be fully applied owing to lack of organization. The Joint Industrial Councils and Reconstruction Committees at present functioning cover about 3¾ million workpeople. The Whitley Scheme contemplates the establishment, under the National Joint Industrial Councils, of District Councils—equally representative of employers and employed—and Works’ Committees, comprising management and men in equal numbers, and many such bodies have been formed. The activities of Joint Industrial Councils have been directed largely to the settlement of wages claims and the adjustment of working hours, two problems forced into special prominence by the abnormal economic conditions of the past few years. But other questions of working conditions, e.g. overtime payments, payments for holidays, walking-time allowances, out-working and subsistence allowances, fines for late arrivals have also been discussed by the Councils. Some have considered the problem of unemployment and arrangements for contracting out of the National Unemployment Insurance Scheme; others have prosecuted statistical investigations and research into their particular industries; all of them have considered questions of welfare in conjunction with the Home Office; certain of them have considered some commercial matters which affect their industries. The Government agreed to regard a Joint Industrial Council as the Standing Consultative Committee for its industry, and in a number of instances matters such as the foregoing have been discussed on the initiative of the Government. A few Joint Industrial Councils do not deal with wages questions, viz., building, boot and shoe, paper making, printing, and metallic bedsteads, as machinery for the settlement of wages existed in these trades before the Councils were established and it was thought by the industries better to continue such machinery. Certain industries in which organization of employers and employed is well developed, such as iron and steel, coal, cotton, engineering, shipbuilding, have not favoured the formation of a Joint Industrial Council. In them conciliation boards or some well-recognized machinery is in existence for the settlement of disputes.