TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 581 



processes are from 10s. to 14s. per week, and the rates are piece-work rates if 

 paid direct by the employer, and time-work rates if paid by the presser. 

 Warehouse Women — ' sorters ' are paid a time-1'ate of about 9s. per week. 



Of recent years women have been introduced on the following work : 



Decorating. 



(a) ' Ground-laying.' This process is held by the trade union to be a 

 man's process, although women have come in at lower rates of pay during recent 

 years. The process itself is, however, being displaced by 'aero-graphing/ 

 which is a woman's process. 



(h) ' Painting,' where men have been almost entirely displaced by litho- 

 graphy, which has been done by women since 1900. 



Flat-ioare Pressing. 



Women entered the trade 30-35 years ago on the smaller articles, e.g., 

 (■ups and saucers, and 4-inch and 6-inch plates. They were, however, refused 

 admission to the union or recognition of any kind until about 1903. The first 

 women were admitted at the time of the amalgamation of the union in 1906. 



The women are paid at piece-work rates about one-third less than the rates 

 of the men. Men earn 30s. to 32»\ and women 20*\ per week. 



Since the War women have been employed on the pressing of 10-inch and 

 12-inch plates, and they are paid piece-work rates one-third lower than the 

 men. The men claim that the women should be paid at the same piece-work 

 rates as the men. To this the women appear to object, urging that the effect 

 of the men's wage-rate policy will be to exclude women from the process since : 



(«) Women require more supervision than men. 



(6) Women cannot set their own machines, and require the assistance of a 

 mechanic. 



By an agreement between the unions and tlie employers the men who have 

 enlisted are to be reinstated at the end of the War; women who have taken 

 their places are to receive the same wage-rate as the men displaced, and a 

 number of women are now receiving men's rate of pay in consequence, but it is 

 stated that in some cases this condition is infringed. It is also stated that 

 children above the school-leaving age, especially girls, are being employed in 

 considerable numbers as apprentices on time-rates— girls at 2s., boys at 5s. per 

 week. It is feared by the union that the abnormal number ot apprentices 

 thus introduced into the trade will undercut other classes of labour, especially 

 women's labour, and consequently the labour of men. 



A War bonus of 7-^- per cent, is being paid to all workers who are employed 

 direct, and the ti-ad-3 union expects its members who employ ' finishers ' or 

 others, on the ' tally ' system, to pass on the bonus. 



In the early part of the War the pottery trade was very depressed and the 

 majority of its workpeople left for more remunerative employment, the men 

 gomg largely to the collieries and to armament factories, and a few of the 

 women to artificial silk-weaving in Leek. Since December the trade has shown 

 greater activity and there has been a shortage of labour, not among the more 

 skilled workers but among those less skilled. This is a notable exception to the 

 general experience, and the reason appears to be that unskilled labour has found 

 at the moment more remunerative employment elsewhere. The shortage of 

 unskilled labour rather than a lack of orders is the cause of some of the short 

 time in the trade. Generally, owing to the stoppage of German and Austrian, 

 and to some extent French, pottery exports to the Colonies, U.S.A., and the 

 United Kingdom, there is a big demand at the present time for all the cheaper 

 grades of English pottery, whilst there is a slump in the richly decorated and 

 high price goods. Probably owing to financial and shipping difficulties the 

 l-.iilk trade to U.S.A. and to South America is very quiet, so that many 

 of the workers must be gradually diverted from the two classes of manufacturers 

 of expensive pottery, and of bulk pottery for U.S.A. and South America, to 

 the cheaper houses who are very bu.<!y. 



