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II
- LABOUR CONDITIONS
1.
EMPLOYMENT
In April 1939 particulars
were obtained from local employers of 4,985 persons employed in Welwyn
Garden City who earned under £250 p.a. and from various enquiries
it was estimated that some 415 additional persons also came into this
wage category, making a total of about 5,400 wage earners earning under
£250 p.a. The 415 unaccounted for in this Survey were distributed
approximately as follows:- domestic servants, estimated at 250; private
gardeners, estimated at 30; retail shops and street traders, other than
those covered by the Survey, estimated at 75; employees of the three small
firms that refused co-operation, known to be approximately 40. The remainder
was made up of a few employees in private offices and very small businesses.
Table I shows the
division of the employed and unemployed population into age and sex groups.
It excludes, however, the above 414 persons of whom we had no details.
It will be noticed that unemployment averaged under 4%, and was in every
case below 5% - a figure that has sometimes been considered the "natural"
proportion to cover normal employment changes.
It will be seen
that while three-quarters of all the employees were men and boys, the
number of girls under 21 employed was slightly greater than that of boys
and youths of the same ages, even though domestic service employment was
not included in the Survey. Moreover, many firms laid great stress on
the difficulties they had in obtaining sufficient supplies of young girl
labour. This slightly heavier employment of girls fell off spectacularly,
however, as soon as they became adult, and it appeared that the employment
of married women in Welwyn Garden City was lower than the national average
of some 10% of all married women.
At the time of
the Survey 9 girls were employed for every 8 youths, and, if domestic
service were taken into account, the proportion would probably be about
11 to 8. The explanation lies partly in the fact that agricultural life
throughout England offers very few openings indeed for girls, while it
absorbs many of the youths. There is, therefore, always a considerably
larger exodus of girls than youths from the rural areas. Many of these
country girls become domestic servants and live in the houses of their
employers. Comparatively few travel daily to and from manufacturing districts,
as girls (other than clerical staff) seldom earn sufficient money to offset
their travelling expenses.
It is significant that in Welwyn Garden City
the great demand for young girl labour has resulted in identical average wages
being paid to both boys and girls aged 14 to 16. As in many factories the work
done by girls and youths under 18 (and even some of the older persons) demands
very similar skill, it is possible that a general evening out of wages may tend
to spread to this group and so gradually lessen the present insistence on girl
labour and increase opportunities for the youths.
The distribution of the 3,652 male workers
(representing 73% of the local labour force) in Welwyn Garden City was, at the
time of the Survey, heavily weighted by a radio manufacturing firm that employed
about a quarter of them. The building industry and 21 firms engaged in various
forms of metal industry each employed further quarters of the men and boys of
the town, leaving the remaining quarter to be divided between food manufacture,
chemical industry, miscellaneous businesses and retail distribution.
The employment of the 1,333 women and girls (representing
27% of the local labour force) showed a wider distribution in its grouping.
The radio manufacturer and groups of nine food manufacturers, eleven chemical
firms and three clothing firms each employed some 200 or about 15% of the total.
A rather larger proportion was engaged in retail distribution, and rather fewer
in the 21 metal industry firms. The remainder were in various miscellaneous
business undertakings.
For many purposes it is more important to know the numbers
of workers in the various occupational groups in the town than the numbers employed
by the various industrial firms. This information is of value to the manufacturer
because it gives him some idea of the local supplies of labour of the grade
and skill that he requires. It is of even greater value to the worker, who wishes
to know what alternative employment exists in the neighbourhood for his particular
skill and experience. All the workers in the surveyed group have, therefore,
been classified in Table II by their occupations. The titles of the occupational
groups have been taken from the Occupational Tables of the Census, so that direct
comparison is possible with other districts.
The first four columns show the numbers and proportions
of workers employed in the various occupational groups.
Building in Welwyn Garden City fluctuates as it does
in other towns. At the time of the Survey, it absorbed as an industry some 25%
of the entire male labour supply. As an occupational group the combination of
the skilled building trades with the builders' labourers accounted for just
under 20% of the male workers, the remaining 5% being split up between the occupational
groups of clerical, electrical and transport workers.
The 21 firms engaged in the metal industry employed about
25% of the male labour supply, but the metal trades as such - including all
degrees of skill - represented under 16%, the remaining difference of 9% being
represented by similar groups to those in the building industry, with the addition
of a considerable number of general labourers.
A striking contrast was presented by the radio firm,
who employed another quarter of the labour force, for only 6% of the workers
earning under £250 per annum were classified as electricians - and these
were by no means all employed by this one firm. The position, of course, was
that of the workers earning less than the £250 per annum comparatively
few were highly skilled technicians, while there was a large force of semi-skilled
and unskilled workers, and a considerable office and administrative staff. These
workers, occupationally-speaking, were accordingly classed as metal workers,
unskilled workers, clerical workers, warehousemen and porters, etc. etc.
The unskilled worker group included only people who were
working upon genuinely unskilled jobs. Jobs, that is to say, that could be performed
quite as efficiently after a few days' practice as after several years' experience.
Workers on any jobs that required even a few weeks of training were considered
to fall into the semi-skilled category, and were included under the heading
of an occupational group.
Table II shows that nearly a fifth of the labour force
of the town is occupied upon unskilled work:- 19.6% of the males and 15% of
the females. Almost half of this unskilled labour is employed in the radio firm,
so that, when the total employment of this firm is excluded from the reckoning,
the proportion of unskilled labour is lessened, and becomes l3% of the men,
17% of the youths, 11% of the women, and 9% of the girls. Builders' Labourers
were excluded from the Unskilled Worker category and their inclusion would alter
the proportion of all unskilled labour in the town from 18% to 27% or, if the
radio firm is excluded, from l3% to 24%.
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2. WAGE GROUPINGS
The average wages paid in Welwyn Garden City
at the time of the Survey can be seen in Table III. These were calculated from
the employers' questionnaire which asked for the earnings over the last
four weeks of workers in the different occupational categories. The general
averages were:- 65/- a week for adult men, 43/- for women; 33/- for youths,
and 28/- for girls. The young boys and girls from 14 to 16 years old were kept
apart from this analysis. Wages varied over rather a wide range, so that the
averages do not correspond at all closely with the actual wage received by the
majority of the earners, except in the case of the girls, where wage rates were
more uniform. This can be clearly seen in the same Table II from the columns
of ten shillings wage divisions. The figures in these columns are calculated
in every case on a percentage basis for easy comparison.
Men
In the totals line at the foot of the columns
referring to the adult males it can be seen that, although the average wage
is 65/-, only a little more then a quarter of the men earned between 60/- and
70/-. The greatest concentrations are almost equally just above and just below
this ten shilling wage-group. That is to say, slightly over 30% earned between
50/- and 60/-, and almost 30% earned from 70/- to 80/-. Of the remaining 14%
however some 11% earned more than 80/- and only a short 3% earned under 50/-.
This small low-paid group contained a sprinkling of members of almost every
occupational group, with the very interesting exceptions of Nurserymen and Printers.
The former is one of the lowest paid occupations, in which only some 6% of the
men earn more than 60/- a week, but the wages are very uniform. The latter is
one of the highest paid, and none of the men earned less than 60/- a week.
The highest proportion of low-paid labour occurred among
furnacemen and porters, and, to a lesser extent, among warehousemen; but it
should be realised that these positions are often occupied by elderly men who
are in receipt of a service pension. Another high proportion of low-paid work
appeared among male textile workers, but the total number of male workers in
this group was so small that this proportion cannot be taken as significant.
Women
The average wage
paid to adult women was 43/- a week, but only about an eighth of the women
workers in Welwyn were actually in the group earning between 40/- and
50/-. The main concentration was in the Wage-group of 30/- to 40/- and
this section covered 37% of all working women. About half the total number
of the women came into these two groups and earned therefore from 30/-
to 50/-. A high proportIon (37%) earned over 50/-, and 13% earned under
30/-. Only 5% of the women earned over 70/- a week, and these were almost
all clerical workers.
Youths
(aged 16-21)
The average wages
of both youths and girls aged from 16 to 21 were far nearer to the most
common wage than in the case of their elders.
The average wage
for the youths was 33/- and 39% of them earned between
30/- and 40/-. A further 30% earned 20/- to 30/-, and 25% earned more
than 40/-. Only 5% earned less than 20/-. It was noteworthy that the youths
and the adult women had similar concentrations of their earners between
30/- and 40/-. This wage-group covered 39% of the youths and 37% of the
women. The average wage for all women was, however, 10/- higher than that
of the youths owing to the fact that a further 37% of the women earn over
40/- a week, whereas only 25% of the youths come into this category.
Girls
(aged 16-21)
Girls had an average
wage of 28/-, and 60% of them earned between 20/- and 30/-. The wage-range
of the girls was the shortest of all, 27% earned from 30/- to 40/-, so
that there was less than 20/- difference in the wages of 87% of the girls.
The remaining 13% were divided almost equally between those who earned
over 40/- and those who earned under 20/-.
The low-paid group
was proportionally very similar to that of the youths - rather over 6%
of the girls and 5% of the youths. After this stage, however, the difference
in payments was very marked. The number of youths rose fairly rapidly
to between 30/- and 40/-, and one in every four earned more than 40/-.
Only a third of the girls, however, could have any hope of rising above
the 20/- to 30/- group before reaching the age of 21, and but a few exceptional
cases were able to earn more than 40/- a week, these being almost entirely
clerical workers.
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3. OCCUPATION GROUPINGS
The comparative wages of men, women, youths and girls
have now been discussed in very general terms. It is, however, well known that
certain occupations are far more lucrative than others, and a short analysis
of this position, as it appeared in Welwyn at the time of this Survey, may be
of interest.
Men
Among the most poorly paid occupations for men were,
as one might expect, market gardening, builders' and general labourers, messengers
and porters. These were, however, by no means the lowest paid occupations for
youths. But in these occupations the "margin of advancement", or the
difference between the average wage paid to the men and that paid to the youths,
was, at the most, 22/- a week, whereas the average "margin of advancement"
for all occupations was 32/-. It is probably significant that the occupational
group "market gardeners or nurserymen" consisted in Welwyn only of
adult males. The actual numbers of all horticultural and agricultural labourers
have been declining for many years over most of the country, and it was not
surprising that the youths of a "new town" such as Welwyn would tend
towards better paid occupations.
The best paid occupational group were the printers, and
after them came the skilled metal tradesmen, electrical engineers and builders'
craftsmen. The difference between the average wage paid to these men and to
the former group was 20/-, the difference between 76/- a week and 56/-. This,
however, does not take any account of the men in the industries surveyed who
have incomes above £250 a year, of whom there are, of course, many in
the town, and no calculations have been made for this Survey to show what expectation
men had of rising to these higher income levels. That expectation would seem
to be most frequent among skilled metal tradesmen, as 15% of this occupational
group fall into the 90/- to 100/- a week wage-group. Of the other trades with
high average wages, 5% of the electrical engineers, 2% of the printers and but
½% of the builders' craftsmen come into this 90/- to 100/- wage-group,
the highest wage-group covered by the Survey. The number of persons falling
in each wage-group were naturally affected by the incidences of overtime and
short time and would vary slightly from month to month.
It is not reasonable to discuss wage-rates without taking
into some account the regularity of employment. Further discussion on this point
will be found later on in this report, but it can here be stated that the risks
of unemployment would normally be fairly evenly divided between these four lowest-paid
and four highest-paid occupations. Each group contained a section of the building
industry, which is notoriously unstable; each contained two trades that normally
follow the general curve of trade expansion or depression; and each contained
one trade (printing and market-gardening) in which most of the employees experience
no periods of unemployment during the whole of their working lives.
Youths
(aged 16-21)
With the exception
of the printing trade, the more youthful members of the four high-paid
occupations earned exactly the same as those engaged in the four low-paid
ones. In the printing trade the average wage paid to youths was 22/-.
This is 11/- below the general average wage, making the "margin of
advancement" rise to 57/-. The average "margin of advancement"
for the other three high-paid trades was 39/-. The conclusion that young
men are paid very similar wages no matter what occupation they enter is
interesting, as it shows the importance attached to "good prospects"
of advancement.
Women
Turning to the
wages for women and girls, we find that by far the most lucrative occupation
for women was clerical work. Indeed the only occupations for which the
average wage was higher than the general average of 43/- a week, were
clerical work (56/-) and shop assistants (45/-). There were, in addition,
two women employed as electricians who earned 65/- a week each, and one
as a printer who earned 75/-, but these must be considered quite exceptional
cases.
Clerical workers
and shop assistants together comprised nearly half the total number of
women workers. Of the remaining 51% almost two-thirds earned from 30/-
to 40/-, some 20% earned lass than 30/- a week, and only 6% - barely one
in seventeen - earned over 50/-. On the other hand, some two-fifths of
the shop assistants and as many as four-fifths of the clerical workers
earned more than 50/- a week.
The lowest paid
occupations were packers, scarcely distinguishable from unskilled workers,
whose average wage was 30/-, and unskilled and semi-skilled chemical and
metal workers, all of whom were paid an average wage of 32/- to 33/-.
The laundry and
clothing workers formed a middle group who received average wages of about
38/-.
Girls
(aged 16-21)
The wages of the
girls did not follow the same rhythm as those of the youths. Those trades
that paid high wages to the women workers tended to pay high wages to
the girls. The reason for this was that the girls frequently, indeed usually,
left the firm to marry very shortly after they had become, in our phraseology,
women, so that a knowledge that their pay would be greatly increased after
the age of 21 would be, in most cases, of academic interest only. That
is to say, the "good prospects" had to be quickly realisable.
Girls (aged 16
to 21) earned very similar wages no matter what their occupation might
be. The highest paid were those engaged in clerical and chemical work,
and these earned respectively an average wage of 34/- and 31/- a week.
The lowest paid were the packers who earned 24/-. No other occupation
had an average wage above 28/- or below 26/- a week.
Young
boys and girls
The young boys
and girls from 14 to 16 years old were kept out of the foregoing occupational
analysis because most of those young people are apt to change their jobs
several times during this period. Also, no matter what the technical name
of the occupation may be, the actual job of the youngster is normally
merely to fetch and carry. Some of the local firms would not employ young
people below 15, or in some cases, 18.
Table No. IV shows the occupational position
of this group at the time of the Survey. Among the boys the proportion of unskilled
workers employed was very similar to that of the adult males - 20.4% of the
boys and 19.6% of the adults. Other occupations, however, showed marked divergences
in their proportion. Shop assistants (mainly errand-boys) and Messengers accounted
for some 39% of the boys, but only 6% of the adults; whereas the building trade
which employed 20% of the adults had only 2% of the boys. Another less obvious
difference appeared in the metal trades. Here 29% of the boys were employed,
but only 15% of the adults. This divergence can be partly explained by the requirement
of cheap labour on the part of many, and particularly some of the smaller employers
of labour. It appeared that in several firms where young boys were employed
on metal work, low wages were paid, and little or
no effort was normally made to train the boys to become skilled mechanics. Apprenticeships
were extremely rare in Welwyn Garden City, and some of the older established
firms refused to take on boys under 16, or, in some cases, even 18 years of
age. As Welwyn Garden City at the time of this Survey possessed no technical
or secondary schools, it appeared that many boys of 14 to 16 were obliged to
take on a blind-alley job - more usually a series of blind-alley jobs - for
the period of these two years. Those who were mechanically minded could, with
a few exceptions, only find employment in the less well-established firms. These
soon found their pay was lower than that of many of their contemporaries and
their prospects poor, and, almost without exception, they would leave the firm
at the age of 16 or 17 to try their luck in one of the other firms in Welwyn
Garden City or in Hatfield that their age now enabled them to enter. This seemed
to be one of the underlying causes of a certain amount of local bitterness regarding
the migration of partly trained labour. On the other hand, one of the older
firms that regularly accepted young boys straight from school, trained them
efficiently and paid the usual scale of wages, was able to show an enviably
low migration of young labour.
The young girls were found in the clerical
jobs in the same proportion as their elders - 35% in both cases. Shop assistants
(mainly errand-girls) were rather in excess of the adult proportion 10% compared
to 6%; and unskilled workers amounted to 31% of the young girls and only 15%
of the women. "Packers" should probably, however, be included with
unskilled workers in making this comparison, and the figures would then become
31% of the young girls and 28% of the women. The clothing trade employed very
similar proportions of juvenile and adult labour, but the chemical industry
had a considerably larger proportion of young girls - 7% compared to 3% adults.
For the most part, this was a new industry in Welwyn Garden City, and it is
probable that, under normal conditions, these proportions would gradually tend
to level out.
The wages paid both to boys and girls between 14 and
16 years old averaged 16/9d. a week, and the variations upon this average were
within a very narrow compass. 86% of the boys and 54% of the girls earned between
15/-d. and 20/-d. a week, and the other wage-groups can be seem from Table V.
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4. PLACE OF RESIDENCE
We received details of the place of residence
of 4,527 employees. This number represented 90% of those of whom we had employment
details. Rather over half the remaining 458 workers were recent employees of
the radio firm about whom particulars had not yet been registered. The remainder
were mostly employed at one of the older established firms in the town, the
manager of which expressed conscientious objections against divulging the home
places of his staff. There appeared no reason to believe that this 10% of the
employed population did not follow the same trends as the 90% of which we had
full information.
Table VI gives the general position. 72% of
the workers lived in Welwyn Garden City itself, and 28% travelled daily to and
from places as near as 2 miles and as far as 20 miles away.
Of 1,264 workers (28.3%) who travelled in
daily to the factories of Welwyn Garden City, 435 (almost 10% of the total labour
force) lived within 3 miles and 694 - more than half the incoming workers -
lived within 7 miles of the town. All these usually bicycled in to work. Another
280, or about a fifth of the incomers, lived on bus or train routes between
7 and 9 miles away, and 137, or 11% of the incomers, came from two towns with
good railway connections that were 12 and 14 miles distant. The remaining 153
came daily from Greater London - mainly from the northern suburbs. This represented
about l2% of the incoming workers, but only 3% of the total labour force of
Welwyn Garden City.
A representative of the London Passenger Transport
Beard has stated in several lectures that, as a result of considerable experience,
they have found that very few people are prepared to spend more than three-quarters
of an hour upon the task of travelling to and from work (i.e. 1½ hours
a day). This could be interpreted to mean about 6 to 7 miles each way by bicycle,
20 miles by train or bus, and a little more by car or motor-bicycle, and these
distances might be taken to represent the limits of normal daily travel.
It is significant, therefore, that no evidence has been
found of any employees bicycling into Welwyn Garden City from any town or village
more than 8 miles away, while at least two-thirds of the cyclists travelled
under 4 miles to their work.
From Table VI it was clear that the numbers
of people who come into the town to work diminished directly with distance,
though there were a few notable exceptions. Harpenden (8 miles) and Ware (8
miles) sent fewer workers to Welwyn Garden City than might be expected, the
first probably because it was predominantly a middle-class residential area
and already within the orbit of the Greater London labour market, and the second
probably because of the difficulties of direct transport. Facilities for transport,
on the other hand, had something to do with the comparatively large influx of
workers from Hitchin. Workers from London were somewhat in a class to themselves.
About half of them were female clerical staffs, many of whom were employed by
their present firms before these moved to Welwyn Garden City. These girls, mainly
because they wished to continue to live with their parents, preferred to make
the half-hour train journey from Kings Cross rather than move into lodgings
in Welwyn Garden City.
The ratio of men to women who travelled into
the town was identical with that of men to women employed - 73% men and 27%
women. These proportions, however, varied widely in detail. Of the 153 workers
coming from London 50% were women, while among 259 coming from small villages
in the 5 to 7 mile radius (the bicycling zone) only 15% were women. Even if
the London workers are excluded, the general proportions of men and women are
only slightly altered to 25% women and 75% men.
Table Val also shows that the size of the
daily labour flow into Welwyn Garden City bore little or no relation to the
size of the population of the town or village from which it came. Broadly speaking,
the villages within the 7 mile orbit contribute a larger proportion of their
population than the townships in the same area, and the most important general
deduction that can be drawn along these lines is that 40% of the labour coming
daily into Welwyn Garden City came from small villages, some of these being
on the immediate outskirts of the town. This represented about 11% of the total
labour supply of the town. It was mainly low skilled labour and contained a
great proportion of the building trade. Most of this labour represented a permanent
pool of workers surplus to the requirements of their immediate locality, that,
but for the establishment of the garden city, would probably have had to leave
their villages and emigrate to towns elsewhere.
Table VII compares the working populations
that flow daily inwards and outwards from Welwyn Garden City. The proportion
who left the town to work elsewhere was obtained from the "Household Questionnaire"
which gave the jobs, places of work and wages of 602 inhabitants who earned
under £250 p.a. While the proportions in the column that relates to these
people cannot be so comprehensively accurate as those in the first column, there
is no reason to believe that these 602 workers were unrepresentative of those
in the Garden City who earned less than £250 p.a. The 489 of these who
both lived and worked in Welwyn Garden City amounted to 15% of the total number
of workers known to live and work in the town (rather over 3,363).
For clarity of comparison Table VII has been drawn up
as for every 100 wage-earners, earning under £250 p.a. who lived in Welwyn
Garden City at the time of the Survey. It will be seen that 81% of the Welwyn
Garden City wage-earning population both lived and worked in the town and that
19% went outside the town to work. But that for every 19 persons who left the
town to earn their living elsewhere 32 persons came in to work in the Garden
City (e.g. 28 in proportion to 72 = 32 in proportion to 81).
At first sight it appears as though there was a constant
cross traffic of wage-earners amounting to about a fifth of the total labour
force, but Old Welwyn and Hatfield are so near to Welwyn Garden City that they
can well be regarded as part of the same industrial district, and the figures
would then be altered to 91% of the Welwyn Garden City population living and
working in the district, and only 9% who sought work beyond the immediate neighbourhood.
Further, for every 9 persons who left Welwyn Garden City to work outside the
district, 21 came in to work in Welwyn Garden City itself. The cross-traffic
from beyond the 3 mile radius is thereby reduced to 9% of the town's labour
force, and it is clear that the town imports more than two workers for every
one that it sends out.
The labour imports and exports from Welwyn Garden City
to Old We1wyn and Hatfield roughly balanced, but the proportions were significantly
different. Welwyn Garden City exported 10.4% of its wage-earners and for every
ten workers 1.2 went to Old Welwyn and 9.2 to Hatfield. From the same places
Welwyn Garden City imported 11.0 workers, of which 6.2 came from Old Welwyn
and 4.8 from Hatfield. That is to say, Hatfield gained two workers for every
one she sent to We1wyn Garden City but Old Welwyn's imports were little more
than a sixth of her exported labour force.
The reason for these different proportions could be found
in the difference of the workers themselves. Those who left Old Welwyn and Hatfield
to work in Welwyn Garden City were mainly low skilled workers, while of those
who left Welwyn Garden City for Hatfield 75% were skilled or semiskilled metal
workers who all streamed into one great engineering firm, and the remaining
quarter were mostly shop assistants and skilled transport workers.
Table VIII shows the workers that lived outside
the town arranged according to their occupations. One of the most striking features
is the large proportion of the building trade that did not live in the town.
This was probably due to the fact that building was active at the time of the
Survey, and that building trade workers are in the habit of taking successive
jobs over a fairly wide district as local contracts come and go. Welwyn Garden
City dwellers indeed supplied only half the skilled builders that the town employed
at the time of the Survey, and not much more than a third (39%) of the builders'
labourers. The influx of building workers accounts for 29% of all incoming labour,
whereas the proportion of total employment represented by the building trade
was barely 15%. Nearly a third of the clerical staffs live outside the town,
but this was the only case, other than the builders, where the proportion of
skilled labour coming into the town (18.7% of all incomers) was greater than
the general proportion of employment in the trade (16.4% of total labour force).
In every other case the imports of skilled labour were less and of unskilled
labour more than the general proportions of employment in the trade would lead
one to expect. The only occupations in which the town was over 90% self-supporting
were chemical workers (a new industry), clothing workers (mostly young girls),
and porters and messengers (often jobs that require nearby residence).
One can but draw the same conclusion as before
on the general position of employment in the town. The chief industries of Welwyn
Garden City were of a light character and employed a large number of low skilled
workers. But the general amenities of the Garden City tended to attract a high
proportion of residents who desired skilled work and high wages. This proportion
was probably higher than normal, and certainly higher than could be fully employed
in a young town of under 15,000. It would seem that these workers consciously
chose to live in Welwyn Garden City and were prepared to put up with the inconveniences
of travelling some distance to their work.
To return to the figures of inward and outward bound
labour beyond the three mile limit that includes Old Welwyn and Hatfield - the
outward bound traffic represented 9% of the town's workers (earning below £250
p.a.) and for every 9 of these 21 workers came into the town. If it were accepted
as both desirable and practicable that no man should travel more than three
miles to work in Welwyn Garden City, it would appear, therefore, that the working
population of the town would have to be expanded by 19% (21:81 + 21). This would
merely house those who at present travel in daily and assumes that the same
9% would continue to leave the town for work elsewhere.
Two-thirds of this 9% travel to work in London,
or 6.2% of the wage-earning population. It is possible that this proportion
is lower than in most other small towns, situated on a main railway line half-an-hour's
journey from a central London terminus. However, for every 6 persons who left
Welwyn Garden City to work in London 4 came in. This exchange was chiefly a
cross-traffic of clerical workers, but whereas a large proportion of those coming
into Welwyn Garden City were young girls, those leaving Welwyn Garden City for
London were mostly men, many of whom were employed in branches of the civil
service and as railway clerks.
One is, in fact, again led to the same conclusion that
Welwyn Garden City does not house a considerable number of its lesser skilled,
and therefore lower paid workers. It is probable that in general a low skilled
worker living in a cheap pre-1914 house within cycling distance of Welwyn Garden
City would have little incentive to move to a higher rented modern house within
the town. In Welwyn Garden City itself (founded in 1920) there were obviously
no pre-l9l4 houses such as affect arrangements in all other towns and normally
provide accommodation for the lowest-paid labour.
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5.
SOURCES OF ORIGIN
Where do the workers
in Welwyn come from ? What proportion are from the Depressed or "Specia1"
Areas and what sort of jobs do these people get ?
Table IX provides
the answers to both these questions, but, as the "sources of origin"
were tabulated from unemployment cards they require a little modification.
The employment card always shows the place in which its owner got his
first job, and, under normal circumstances, this place tends to be his
home-town. This rule is only varied if a man loses his employment card
and then a new card is issued with the p1ace-name of his employment district
at that time.
The employment
card method of showing the "source of origin" shows that 30%
of the workers in Welwyn Garden City obtained their first job there. The
town was only begun in 1920 and if it were assumed that the 30% (which
represented 1,500 workers) were people who had been born it the town it
would have had to have a phenomenally high birthrate during its first
four years of establishment. The reason for this high figure of local
first jobs is partly to be to found in the immigration of parents with
well-grown families, and partly in the immigration of young labour from
depressed areas, who, on their arrival in Welwyn Garden City had never
had any employment whatever, but it is to be regretted that it was not
possible to separate out this figure from the young labour coming on to
the market from the Welwyn Garden City schools.
A commentary on
this position is to be found at the foot of Table IX, where are shown
the proportions of the "source of origin" of the families visited
by the Household Questionnaire. It will be seen that none are shown as
originating in the Garden City, although in the case of a few young married
couples one or other had lived in the town very nearly all their lives.
Apart from the
Welwyn Garden City column, the difference in proportion between these
two rows of figures is particularly striking in the case of the Northerners
and the Londoners. Among the Northerners it can safely be assumed that
a number had never before been in employment, but the Londoners present
rather a different case.
Here it must be
pointed out that the figures for the household include both the people
who live and worked in Welwyn and those who worked outside. The 6.2% of
the wage-earning population who worked in London was largely composed
of London-bred people who had come out to live in Welwyn Garden City as
a dormitory town.
It is probable that the Household Survey figures
gave a more accurate impression of the general make-up of the town, and from
the foot of Table IX it could be said, in the broadest possible terms, that,
after nearly twenty years of existence, the working population of Welwyn Garden
City consisted half of local origin (20%) and former residents of London (30%)
and half of people from more or less depressed regions (34%) and elsewhere (16%
including Midlands). In other words, half the population of Welwyn Garden City
could be said to be due to deliberate decentralisation - Londoners who left
the metropolis, and local country folk who, but for the existence of a town
in the position of Welwyn Garden City would probably have been economically
compelled to leave the district. To other half of the population represented
a certain amount of deliberate immigration following the development of Welwyn
Garden City industry, but to a large extent this part of the immigration must
be considered as not due to definite choice and to be related to the depressed
conditions prevailing elsewhere. That is to say, the majority of this group
who came into Welwyn Garden City would have gone equally readily anywhere else
where work was offered. They did not in any way choose out Welwyn Garden City
for themselves.
The employment distributions of the workers from different
districts shows several interesting features. The people who hailed from Hertfordshire
were principally from rural homes, and, it will be noticed that they tended
to concentrate upon the Building industry. This indeed absorbed almost a third
of their number, while it represented only half this proportion of all workers
in the Garden City. Road Transport Workers and General Labourers were also slightly
above the average proportion, but the factory trades were all rather poorly
represented.
A good proportion of the Londoners were in clerical occupations
(25.8%) and this proportion would be even higher if the figures of all Londoners
were included - that is to say, those Londoners who lived in the town but continued
to work in London. Londoners also were well represented among the skilled workers,
with the marked exception of the printing trade. Welwyn Garden City was situated
just outside the "London area" of this trade, and therefore came into
a district of lower wage-rates. The proportion of General Labourers from London
was well below the average.
Workers from the depressed areas, the North-West,
North, Wales and Scotland all showed similar characteristics. There was a concentration
upon the metal trades, and both the proportion of skilled and unskilled workers
were usually higher than the general average figure. Among Scotsmen there was
a proportion of 24.0% skilled metal workers compared to the general average
of 6.0%. This very great increase had, however, a special cause, for a Scottish
Foundry had moved to Welwyn Garden City and brought with it a great number of
its original work-people. Broadly speaking, it could be said that the metal
trades, including electrical workers, covered about a quarter of the people
from the depressed areas, while the general average figure was 17%. Another
rather more obvious concentration occurred among the Unskilled Workers. These
represented nearly a quarter of all Welwyn Garden City workers, but about a
third of those from depressed areas. On the other hand, these areas seldom provided
above half the general proportion of clerical workers.
For the purposes of this analysis it is convenient to
take the workers from the Midlands and elsewhere together. The Midlanders were
very strongly concentrated in the skilled metal trades and the electrical industry.
Those from elsewhere, who were mainly country folk from the South and South-West
had more than the general proportion in the skilled Building Trades, Printers,
and Shop Assistants. Both these districts contributed but a small proportion
of General Labourers.
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6. SEASONAL EMPLOYMENT FLUCTUATIONS
The Graph on Table X shows the comparative
fluctuations of employment in the town. It was derived from figures supplied
by manufacturers giving the numbers employed by their firms at the end of each
month over the last three years, and the figures for unemployment was obtained
from the local Labour Exchange. These figures were then totalled and an average
employment figure for each month over the three years, 1936, 7 and 8 was arrived
at. It was considered that the combination of figures over three years would
gather together most of the influence of general business expansion, and that
the subsequent differences could safely be attributed mainly to seasonal conditions.
The radio firm employed so large a proportion of the insured population - nearly
20% - and the fluctuations of its personnel ware so much greater than elsewhere
that it was considered best to divide this firm from the main body of the workers
and show it separately.
It will be noted that in the three years recorded, employment
over the year tended to be slack in the early spring, fairly constant throughout
the summer, rising to a peak in the autumn. It then fell rather sharply and
remained at a comparatively low level until February - March.
The difference between employment at the peak month and
the trough was 110 persons for the firms representing 80% of the town's employment,
and 210 for the radio firm. In other words, the radio firm's employment tended
to fluctuate about 20% but in the rest of the town (taken as a whole) the movement
was only 2.5%.
The curve of unemployment did not follow the two employment
curves very exactly, and the difference between the peak and trough of this
curve was not the 300 we might expect, but only 120.
The reason for this discrepancy was twofold.
First a considerable proportion (28%) of the workers in the town lived and were
registered outside the town, so that when these people fell out of work in Welwyn
Garden City it would not appear on the record of the Welwyn Garden City Labour
Exchange. Secondly, the Labour Exchange figures covered a certain number of
employees who were not included in the rest of the Survey. For example, the
drop in the unemployment figures in June and increase in July cannot be accounted
for by the other curves. The cause, however, was traced to building operations
in the town that were being carried on by outside firms, and employing a proportion
of local labour. Several such building contracts reached completion in the July
of one year, and the result was reflected in the unemployment bulge shown by
the graph. The slackening of unemployment over December was also due to causes
outside the scope of this report, mainly temporary employment outside the Garden
City.
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7. FACTORY AMENITIES
Midday meals
In Welwyn Garden City most of the factory workers are
easily able to return to their homes for their midday meal. At the time of the
Survey, however, 28% of the insured workers lived outside the town, and had,
therefore, to bring their dinner with them, or buy it in Welwyn Garden City.
Ten of the 74 industrial establishments in Welwyn Garden
City provided canteens where hot refreshments could be bought and dinners heated
up. This figure included three restaurants, the large radio firm, and six others
with from 22 to 387 employees. In all, these firms employed 2,027 or 41% of
the workers in the town. Twenty-one other firms provided some means by which
their workers could heat their dinners or make hot tea, and these firms employed
another 958 people. Thus, some sort of facilities for meals were available for
2,985 workers - or about 60% of the total number.
Of the remaining 42 firms, three were building and road-repairing
undertakings, whose workpeople were normally too widely scattered over the neighbourhood
for any canteen accommodation to be workable. The remainder employed altogether
1,174 people, or nearly 25% of the total. Many of these firms were very small,
employing under 10 persons, and only three employed over 100 (the average size
was 30). Of this total of 1,174 workpeople, it can be confidently assumed that
well over 300 were unable to return to their homes for their midday dinner.
Welwyn Garden City possessed four restaurants,
one of which was in the factory area and provided snacks and a cheap midday
meal. It had accommodation for 94 persons and was invariable crowded out. Further
extension of its premises was not possible, and the constitution of the Garden
City prevented small rival cafes from establishing themselves. Although this
restaurant was probably primarily intended to cater for the ordinary
working man, its clientele was very largely composed of minor executives and
office staff. It appears that at the time of the Survey a considerable number
of workpeople in the Garden City were unable easily to obtain hot midday refreshment
within their means, and that further accommodation would have been welcomed.
Mid-morning
snacks
Mid-morning Breaks
that included a free cup of tea or coffee, were given by eleven of the
firms in Welwyn Garden City who employed 386 - or about 8% - of the workers.
Two of these firms employed over 100 workers each, the rest were small.
One of the large firms employed mainly girls and the other was a food
manufacturer. Two of the smaller firms were also food manufacturers, but
the others were engaged upon a variety of products including heavy engineering.
In many other firms a short mid-morning break was allowed although there
was no provision of free snacks.
Sickness
benefit
Welwyn Garden City
had a popular "Central Civic Fund" that was run through the
factories and provided the insured workers' family with free hospital
treatment, district nurse and ante-natal and child welfare clinics. It
also enabled the worker and his family to obtain special treatments, optical
and maternity services at reduced rates. It did not, however, assist towards
the payment of doctor's fees or dental treatment for the family, though
the insured worker himself was, of course, entitled to both those under
his compulsory National Health Insurance. The payments were 2d. a week
from the worker and 2d. from the firm, and 58% of the firms, employing
a total of 82% of the workers belonged to the scheme. Some firms made
contributions compulsory upon employment, but in most cases joining up
was voluntary. It appeared that
some 75% of the workers in these firms joined, representing a total membership
of nearly 3,500 or some two-thirds of the total workers in the town.
About another 300
workers were covered by the Hospital Savings Association or special private
schemes, and only some 9% were employed in firms where they had no opportunity
to join some organisation of this sort.
Sick
pay
When a man fell
sick he was able, after a lapse of three days, to draw a limited amount
of sickness pay from the National Health Insurance fund. The exact amount
varied according to the particular "approved society" he had
joined, and through which his insurance was paid. The amount, however,
could seldom, if ever, equal his normal weekly wage.
Recognition of
this fact was widespread among Welwyn Garden City employers, and only
16% of the workers were left to rely entirely upon their National Health
Insurance allowances in times of sickness.
Nearly a third
of the firms, covering some 46% of the workers, "made up" wages.
That is to say, they paid the man the difference between his normal wage
and the amount he received from his Insurance Society. Many of the smaller
firms paid full wages in addition to insurance money for periods extending
up to 6 weeks of illness. This covered under 400 of he workers (8%) and
included only one firm employing over 100 people. In four of the larger
firms and one small firm that did not pay any direct wage, Benevolent
Funds were organised among the workers, upon which sick employees could
draw. Emp1oyees in these firms represented 21% of the workers in the town.
Yet another small
group of firms, covering 9% of the workers, had no fixed policy about
sick pay but "judged each case upon its merits".
There appeared
to be no discernible alignment of firms on the matter of sick pay. Large
firms and small firms, heavy engineering firms, and firms employing girl
labour, firms with low and high labour turnovers were all equally varied
in their practices. The firms with a definite policy of payment, either
part or whole, represented 51% of the firms and covered 54% of the workers.
Those with an indefinite policy or reliance upon contributory Benevolent
Funds represented 12% of the firms and 30% of the workers. The remainder
paid nothing.
It can, therefore,
be said that approximately half of the firms employing rather over half
the workers believed that it was good policy to give their employees the
security that they would, at any rate, not be losing wages if they were
compelled to "go sick", though, in several cases, the period
of payment was limited, in some cases to 6, in others to 2 weeks, On the
other hand there still remained 16% of the workers who had no security
beyond the National Health Insurance.
Holidays
The Survey was
carried out during the spring of the first year of "Holidays with
Pay". This scheme, which consisted of one week's holiday on full
pay, affected practically all the workers in Welwyn Garden City, so that
account need only be taken of firms who gave their workers more than a
week off. There were 22 of such firms employing 2,075 workpeople - 42%
of the town. Most of these gave a fortnight to all their employees, who
had been with the firm a year or more, others limited this to those over
the age of 19, and others gave a day for every month worked with the firm
up to a limit of two or three weeks.
At the other extreme,
there were five firms who did not pay for Bank Holidays, although, under
the new law, they were compelled to give the week's holiday with pay.
These firms employed 300 people. In addition, the Railway, Post Office
and Police Station were often unable to give Bank Holidays on the actual
day, but substitute leave was arranged.
The many firms
that gave one week's holiday to their factory employees and a fortnight
to the office staff only are not included in the above figures.
Social
and sports clubs
Social and Sports
Clubs in firms were infrequent in Welwyn, possibly because the town itself
was well supplied in this respect. Some sort of organisation existed in
11 of the largest firms and covered 2,273 of the workers - about 45%,
but in only five of the firms was any outdoor accommodation provided,
four had football grounds (two of them very rough) and two had tennis
courts.
Of the indoor accommodations,
most had dartboards, four had table-tennis tables and one a billiard table.
Occasional social gatherings were arranged, but at only three of the firms
did it appear that any great activity was shown on the social side.
Pension
schemes
The firms in Welwyn
Garden City were mostly rather too young to have found any actual need
for a pension scheme. Fourteen firms had, however, at any rate the nucleus
of schemes in operation. Two of them were non-contributory, but the others
were on a contributory and actuarial basis. Nearly 600 workers were able
to participate in these schemes, but (with the exception of Urban District
Council schemes) most were still in somewhat of an embryo condition.
A few other firms
ran pension schemes covering the salaried members of their staff only.
As the people participating in these schemes usually earned above £250
per annum, no particulars were obtained for this Survey.
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8.
GENERAL CONCLUSIONS
It could be concluded
that the labour position in Welwyn Garden City would probably be improved
if the town were able to attract an industry requiring skilled adult labour
with a production peak from November to March. This would reduce seasonal
unemployment, avoid the necessity for the migration of much skilled labour
and gradually provide a labour force of young people for whom there would
appear to be an ever increasing demand.
This remedy is
probably too facile and it would seem more likely that a solution must
need be found that would allow for a greater rather than a lesser concentration
upon semi-skilled labour.
The present local
demand for low-skilled labour only confirmed a general tendency which
has been observed during the last twenty years over a very large part
of the industry of the whole country, but especially in the South and
South East. Indeed, a local investigation made about 1936/7 into the problem
of unskilled labour in London and the Home Counties compared with Welwyn
Garden City found that the experience of Welwyn Garden City was almost
universal.
It can broadly
be stated that the adaptable semi-skilled man has been fast becoming the
desideratum of most manufacturers; a man who can readily be shifted from
job to job and who has just enough mechanical sense to pick up new work
after a modicum of training. From general observation it would appear
that the demand for skilled labour has become not only more limited but,
at the same time, more exacting. Few trades (other than parts of the building
industry and iron founding) still prefer the "old fashioned"
long term craftsman. Many more prefer the technically qualified young
man who has been through a secondary school and technical institute and
the dividing line between this hierarchy and the semi-skilled rank and
file is becoming far more unbridgeable than that between the skilled craftsman
who had "served his time" and an unskilled labourer.
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