TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 



sas 



ance is the variety of functions demanded from clerks, more particularly in 

 smaller stations. They issue tickets, despatch luggage and parcels, manage the 

 telegraph, make inquiries for missing or injured packages, and, most important 

 of all, discharge certain directive functions in giving orders in the case of trains 

 delayed, which involve visits to the signal box, goods shed or shunting yard. 

 Their position being in many instances almost the equivalent of under station 

 master, it is obvious that women are handicapped by their shorter and less 

 thorough experience. 



In the case of booking clerks, the great increase in the employment of women 

 since the War has been greatly facilitated by the suspension of cheap bookings 

 and excursion tickets and the consequent simplification of the work. It is 

 generally believed that in a normal season and in a large station, where 

 the system of classifying tickets is very complicated, women would be 

 imequal to the strain and difficulty of the work. In small provincial 

 stations the variety of functions discharged is an obstacle to their 

 employment as booking clerks ; consequently the permanent employment of 

 women in this capacity is limited to the easier posts in large stations and 

 wherever specialisation and subdivision are such that the booking clerk's work 

 is, in fact, restricted to booking. 



Wages. 



It is a very difficult matter to compare rates of pay received by men and 

 women in the railway service. Where it is a clear case of equal work, as in the 

 case of carriage cleaners, the principle of equal pay has come to be generally 

 accepted by the Companies. The wage paid to carriage cleaners in one Company 

 employing 140 women has taken the following course : 



War Bonus granted 



Men 3.S. 



Women 25. 



Piece rate records show that women will generally earn 10 per cent, less than 

 men on the same work, but having regard to the shorter hours worked by women 

 and the good quality of their work in this service, it seems probable that their 

 net efficiency is little if any less than that of men. Another Company pays its 

 women carriage cleaners 18.5. a week, where men formerly received 1/. See 

 appended Table of particular instances of comparative rates paid to men and 

 women : 



Carriage Cleaning. 

 Men Women 



(1) 30«. compared to 



(2) 21«. for 47 hour week plus piece- 



rates, yielding in total up to about 

 325. for a 60-hour week 



(3) 21«. 6d. plus War Bonus 3*. = 24s. firf. 



(4) 205. dd. plus War Bonus 3s. = 235. 6d. 



for 1st six months. By asreoment 

 2l5. 6d. and War Bonus for 2nd 

 six months = 245. 6i. 



(5) 18a. for lO-hoiir day plus overtime 16?. per 9-hour day with no night work 



(at rate of time and a quarter) plus and less hours on Sunday. No 



night work. overtime. 



1915. August 23.— Agreement reached in all Companies that for the duration 

 of the War women cleaners should receive the same wage as men and work the 

 same hours. [Prefatory Note.} 



2ls. 



165. plus War Bonus of 25. for the 

 normal 47-hour week, no over- 

 time allowed. 



185. plus War Bonus 25. = 20s. 



185. plus War Bonus 25. = 205. for 

 60-hour week. 



