194 Report of Committee on Trade Boards. [June, 



employed. ( The Committee observe that unfortunately for the 

 Trade Board system many of the increases settled by the Boards 

 came into operation when trade was falling. 



Within certain limits an increase in cost of production can be 

 " passed on " to the consumer, but in time the point is reached 

 where the consumer ceases to buy and decline in trade follows, 

 accompanied by discharge of workers — a result which is much 

 more quickly reached where the trade is subject to foreign com- 

 petition. On the other hand, in many cases Trade Boards have 

 afforded protection to the good employer, able and willing to pay 

 a reasonable rate of wages, from unscrupulous competitors who 

 are prepared to take unfair advantage of the economic necessities 

 of the workers. Speaking generally the Committee are of 

 opinion that the Boards have succeeded in abolishing the grosser 

 forms of underpayment. 



The Committee are satisfied that the establishment of the 

 Trade Boards has had a valuable indirect advantage in improv- 

 ing relations between employers and workers. In trades in 

 which no machinery for joint negotiations previously existed, the 

 working of the Trade Board Acts, by bringing the two sides 

 together to discuss the wages question round a table, has in 

 many cases enabled each side to understand something of the 

 other's point of view, and has so contributed to the growth of 

 more satisfactory relations between the two sides and has 

 undoubtedly had the effect of strengthening the respective 

 organisations. 



Although the Committee consider that the Trade Board system 

 should be retained, they express the opinion that the time has 

 come when Parliament should determine certain general prin- 

 ciples upon which the Boards should work. In the Committee's 

 view a clear distinction should be drawn between the use of the 

 coercive powers of the State to insist on the payment of a 

 subsistence wage, and the use of those powers to secure the pay- 

 ment of higher rates of wages for skilled workers. " It is one 

 thing to say that an employer shall not pay an adult worker a 

 sum insufficient for his maintenance " . . . " but any 

 further regulation of wages should be left as far as possible to 

 the processes of negotiation and collective bargaining." On 

 these grounds the Committee make the somewhat revolutionary 

 proposal that Trade Boards in future should have two quite 

 separate functions in fixing rates of wages. 



It is recommended that a Trade Board should in the first place 

 fix a general minimum rate of wages applicable to the lowest 



