856 



REPORT— 1903. 



companies, have VoluntaHly placed themselves under the Act . ■. . go6s 

 to prove that it is practicable for all ' (Mr. Richmond, Captain Smith). 

 The Factory Inspectors give no particulars as to wages, but Miss Collet's 

 report gives them for both steam and hand laundries. Ironers on piece^ 

 work in one steam laundry were earning from 16s. to 22s. ; machine room 

 day workers from 10s. to 16s., for a nominal day of 12 hours, overtime 

 paid at the same rate as ordinary time. Finery and best ironers are 

 quoted in other steam laundries as earning from 3s. to 4s. a day. In one 

 of the laundries where best ironers earned 4y. a day, ' sliirt ironers on 

 piece-work earned from 17s. to 25s., and collar ironers over 21s. in a full 

 week.' Several employers in hand laundries, members of the Acton and 

 West London Laundry Proprietors' Co-operative and Industrial Society, 

 ' stated that in Acton all proprietors paid the same wages. Washers 

 were paid 2s. Qd. a day, of 12 hours, including meals, with 2d. a day for 

 beer. Ironers, 2s. Gd., 2s. dd., and 3s. with beer. All were paid 3d. an 

 hour for overtime, and deductions for short time were made at the 

 same rate.' Miss Collet considered that the comparative uniformity of 

 daily wage which she found in Acton must be largely due to the com- 

 pai-ative absence of young persons. ' In Acton I gathered that it was the 

 custom to send girls to service on leaving school, or to the steam laundries, 

 And for them to leave later, or when old enough and strong enough for the 

 Vvork in the hand laundries.' 



As regards hours of labour since 1896 we may take it that roughly 

 and broadly in the registered laundries the ordinary hours of labour do 

 not exceed those legal, with the addition of overtime in the case 

 of women over eighteen years of age. At first no doubt there were 

 many infringements of the legal limits, and exceedingly long and trying days 

 of work, of which the illegality could hardly be proved, have in too many 



cases occurred. Legal hours that extend to far greater length than in 



any ordinary factory or workshop are still to be found on the days from 

 Tuesday until tlie end of the week ; night Avork is legal and Sunday 

 labour is not prohibited by the Factory Act. Still the exhausting 

 continuous periods, night following day towards the end of the week, 

 instanced by the Factory Inspectors in the report of 1893, have certainly 

 been stamped out by the Inspectors in all but comparatively rare cases, 

 and the use of the overtime exception shows no sign of steadily increasing 

 in this industry. This may be seen in the following extract from official 

 returns of o\ertime. Between 1890 and 1897 any increase so small as is 

 shown would be attributable to improved reporting and endeavour to 

 conform to the law : — 



Year 



1866 . 

 1897. 

 1898. 

 1899. 

 1900. 



1901 . 



No. of Laundries 

 Reporting Overtime 



Steam 

 Laundries 



Hand 

 Laundries 



not given 



336 



412 

 404 



154 

 169 

 104 



650 



No. of Notices of 

 Overtihle 



Steam 

 LautidricB 



2,694 

 3,625 

 4,151 

 4,817 

 4,143 



Hand 

 Laundries 



Total Notices ; 

 Overtime in i 

 ' Laundries 



1,884 

 2,094 

 1,639 

 1,3.39 



857 



not given 



4,678 

 6,719 

 5,890 

 6,156 

 6,000 



5,394 



