“Sweated labour” – The employment of workers for long hours in poor conditions, for low wages.
On the 9th November 1888 John Burnett, labour correspondent of the Board of Trade, presented a report to the House of Commons. It was entitled “Report as to the condition of nail makers and small chain makers in South Staffordshire and East Worcestershire”.
Following reports of unhealthy living conditions appearing in the medical journal "The Lancet", Parliament commissioned a series of reports from Burnett on the “sweated industries”. As Burnett pointed out, it was not the first report to have been carried out on the nail-makers, chain-makers and other sweated industries. Apart from the ending of the “Truck” system, and what he described as the “excessive employment of children”, all of the “evils” identified in earlier reports as being a feature of the chain trade, still existed in 1888. Indeed, he suggested that as a result of increased competition, increased population and mechanisation, these evils intensified.
Burnett first looked at the large factory side of the industry and concluded that, although rates of pay varied, despite attempts by the union to standardise them, generally speaking wages were satisfactory. At this time, the unions were finding it difficult to establish a strong union, as workers were each fighting their own cause, too ready to undercut their neighbours. However, their individual strength did ensure that adequate wages were being paid. Wages in the large factories ranged from £1-2s-6d (£1.13p) per week to £4-1s-0d (£4.05p) per week.
Wage rates in the chain industry were based on the rate for a hundredweight of ½ inch best chain, and the rates for all other sizes and types of chain were computed from this figure. The Union issued a list of rates, and endeavoured to ensure that these were the rates paid. At the time of Burnett’s report they were operating on what was known as the "Four Shillings" list. However this was always in danger of being undercut, despite the best efforts of the union representatives.
His next area of interest was the workshop of a typical small master, who employed thirty women and a boy. Here wages were lower, as the master would charge his customers, who were frequently chain-makers themselves, the "four shilling" rate, but only pay his workers on the "three shilling" rate, pocketing the difference as profit. Wages here ranged from 2/6d (13 pence) per week for a boy to 11s 0d (55 pence) per week for an adult.
When looking at the situation in small domestic workshops, a very different picture emerged. In these he found insanitary working conditions, excessive working hours, poor diet and very low rates of pay. Whilst occasionally finding a fit young man working for a good master, who paid rates broadly equivalent to the rates paid in a larger factory, the picture he drew was one of exploitation and hopelessness. Weekly earnings as low as 4s (20p) per week for an adult female were commonplace, and given that weekly rents could be around 3/6d ( 18p), not much was left for food. The hours worked were typically in excess of seventy per week, many of the women having to look after small children as they worked, and having to carry out domestic chores at the end of a day's work.
It was the opinion of Burnett that, “the domestic workshop is the root from which spring most of the evils of the nail and small chain trades”. Consisting of mostly women workers, this sector of the industry was blighted by the middleman or “fogger”. Except in times of great demand, the labour market was overstocked and, therefore, it overproduced its product. This, in turn, forced down prices, allowing the middlemen to step in and buy the product for which the makers could find no other market. The longer the hours that people worked, the more they employed other family members, the more they overproduced, thereby forcing prices down even further.
The situation was further exacerbated by the fact that the Factory Acts did not apply in domestic workshops, leading to the further lowering of working conditions, which in turn allowed goods to be made at lower prices. Although the Education Act had done much to limit the employment of young people, many opportunities for avoiding the authorities existed in the domestic situation. A downward spiral of low wages and poor working conditions was, in Burnett's view, inevitable.
At this point mention must be made of Burnett’s attitude towards women in the workplace. Burnett was a union man, and there existed at this time considerable opposition to the employment of women, as many believed their place was in the home. According to Burnett, “Every man one speaks to in the shops will denounce female labour as the source of all the troubles the trade suffers from”. He goes on to say, “The women workers themselves will exclaim, ‘Do you call this a Christian country where women are allowed to do work like this?' ”
However, Burnett pointed out that it was very unlikely that the trade would tolerate the banning of female labour, as the speculative benefits that might arise from such a move would not compensate for the loss of earnings, albeit only a few shillings a week. Burnett also suggested that it would arouse what he describes as the “less practical hostility of sentimentalists, who insist upon the right of women to do any kind of work to which they can put their hand”.
There had been suggestions that the size of iron that women could work with should be limited. This would, in Burnett's words, “…remove the disgrace of allowing females to prematurely exhaust themselves by toil, for which they are physically unfitted”. During this period many people were becoming concerned about the state of physical fitness of the population and, in the iron trades, concerns centred around the ability of women to reproduce. This was in contrast to another view common at the time, that many of the female chain-makers' woes were as a result of having too many children.
Finally, Burnett’s conclusion was that the Factory Acts should be extended to cover the domestic workshop situation. This would require the registration of all workshops, together with a greater number of inspectors to ensure that, not just the Factory Acts were being observed, but also that the Education and Truck Acts were being enforced. The scales and weights of all the masters would be subject to inspection, with masters being obliged to display their prices, so that workers would know what they were to be paid. But, before all these measures were put in place, he suggested that a Royal Commission should carry out an inquiry into the nail and chain trades, and that the Committee of the House of Lords on the Sweating System should take evidence from the nail and chain districts.
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| Updated: | Mon 25 Jun 2007 - 1 |
| Interpretation written by | Louis Howe |
| Author's organisation | Curatorial |
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