In the NUMBERING, RELIEF STAMPING, etc., PACKING DEPARTMENT there are no indentures or regular system of apprenticeship but girls are expected to serve about two years.
Age at beginning.—Fourteen.
Premium.—None.
Wages.—Girls start at 1s. per week, for, say, three months, then get three-quarter earnings. Very few are trained in this firm, they take on workers who have learnt elsewhere. How many branches learners are taught seems to depend on chance. Some old hands do all the processes, some only one.
MACHINE RULING.—In this department there is no system. Little girls come and feed at 5s. and 7s. per week. When they have been at it a year or two they are drafted off to other departments.
LITHOGRAPHIC WORK.—There is no regular training in this department. It only takes about two weeks to learn the work done by girls here.
NOTEPAPER FOLDING requires no training. "Why! you could pick it up in a week or two."
WAGES.—The firm does much work for public bodies, and so has to pay "fair" wages. The manager did not seem to know whether this applied to women's work too, but evidently it does.
DEPARTMENT I.—NUMBERING, etc.—The manager gave wages as 11s. to 16s. per week, some being paid on time and some on piece work. The foreman considered 14s. to be about the average. The following girls were questioned:—
One packer got 12s. (time wages) per week.