of departments, due allowance being made for the various sections of workers engaged in any department.

In order that this may not sometimes necessitate a committee of unwieldly size, it is suggested that for large or complex works the workers' side of the joint committee should be appointed by and from a larger body of workers' representatives elected from the various departments.

(iv) The representatives should be appointed for a definite term of office-6 or at most 12 months-and should be eligible for reelection.

(v) The election should be by ballot or by departmental (or sectional) meetings especially convened for the purpose. (vi) The workers' side should appoint a chairman and a secretary.

(vii) On any representative leaving the employment of the firm or resigning his position as member a successor shall be appointed in the ordinary way by the department or section concerned, to hold office for the remainder of the term.

(b) Management side of joint committee.

(i) Certain members of the managerial staff should form a constant nucleus of the management side. (See 4 below.) (ii) The number required for (i) will vary, but two, three, or four is suggested as a suitable number.

To have an equal number of members on the two sides would in most works be impracticable, and, in view of the suggested procedure, is unnecessary. (See, in particular, paragraph (11) under Procedure below.)

(iii) This number should be made up of such individuals as a managing director, the works manager, and, where there is such an official, the labor or welfare superintendent.

(2) The joint committee will be composed of the individuals in (a) (i) and (b) (i) coming together in joint meeting. (3) The joint committee should appoint a chairman and a vice chairman (one from each side). Each side should appoint its own secretary.

(4) Either side shall have the right to add to its number representatives of the particular departments or sections of departments affected by a question under discussion and not directly represented on the committee. The addition shall be made only for the period during which the question affecting the particular departments or sections of departments is before the committee.

(5) The recognized district official of any trade-union or employers' association concerned may attend any meeting in an advisory capacity.

NOTE (1).—It may be found necessary to leave certain questions to be settled not by the whole works committee, but by a subcommittee of it on which the workers' representatives are drawn only from the particular department or section directly concerned, for example, a piecework question in one department of a works which is mainly on time work. The size of the works, also, is a factor which must be taken into account in considering the need for subcommittees. In some instances departmental subcommittees and in others functional subcommittees (e. g., a "safety" committee or a welfare committee) may best suit the circumstances. Even where definite subcommittees are not arranged for, work of the same kind as these would perform may often be carried out by consultation between the representatives of the management and the secretary of the workers' side along with the representatives of a department.

NOTE (2). In large works it will probably be found desirable to establish departmental committees, with a works committee representative of all the departments chosen from the departmental committees. In such cases, the functions of the departmental committees will be confined to matters affecting the department only, whilst the works committee will consider questions affecting more than one department or the whole works. The workers' side of a departmental committee should be so elected as to give representation to each of the various sections of workers engaged in the department.

Procedure

(1) Meetings of the joint committee shall be held at regu

lar intervals of { } weeks.

two four

during working hours.

The meetings shall be held

(2) Special meetings of the joint committee shall be called hours' notice on a request on behalf of one side by its secretary to the secretary of the other side.

at

(3) The agenda of business shall be submitted by the secretaries to each member of the committees at least

hours before a meeting, except in the case of special meetings.

(4) No business other than that appearing on the agenda shall be transacted at any meeting unless both sides agree to its introduction.

(5) When an individual workman desires to bring any question before the committee he should report to his departmental or sectional representative, who in the case of grievances shall endeavor to reach a settlement. Failing a settlement, the representative shall inform the workers' secretary. The latter shall endeavor to arrange a settlement. Failing a settlement, the question shall come before the joint committee.

(6) In the course of his duties the secretary of the workers' side should have the right to enter any department in the works, and the representative of any department or section the right to enter the department in which the secretary is at work.

(7) Facilities should be provided for meetings of the workers' side of the committee in the works, normally after working hours or during meal hours.

(8) The workers' representatives should be paid at their ordinary rate for time spent at meetings of the joint committee. (9) Duplicate books of minutes should be kept, one by the secretary of each side.

(10) Copies of the minutes of all meetings of the joint committee must be sent to the secretaries of the district council within seven days of the date of meeting.

(II) Decisions shall be arrived at only by agreement between the two sides.

(12) In the event of any matter arising which the committee can not agree upon, the officials of the trade-union or unions concerned shall negotiate with the firm or, if desired, with the officials of the employers' association. The question may therefore be referred by either side to the district council.

(13) The works committee shall not have any power to come to an agreement inconsistent with the powers or decisions of the district or national councils or with any agreement between a trade-union and the employers' association. Further, any agreement come to by a works committee may at any time be superseded by the district or national council or by agreement between a trade-union and the employers' association.

Functions

The list of functions outlined below is not meant to be

exhaustive. Almost every industry has rules or customs which arise from the particular conditions under which the work of the industry is carried on (e.g., the payment of "dirty money," provision of tools, allowances for working away from the works or from home, allowances on standard district piece prices for deficiencies in material or machinery, etc.). In a wellregulated industry many such matters will be subject to district or national agreements, and the powers of a works committee will be limited in the same manner as they will be in regard to the more general questions of district or national agreement (standard rates, piece prices, normal hours, overtime, etc.). No attempt has been made to include such questions as arise only in some industries, for which each national council concerned will have to decide upon a method of regulation, including the powers to be vested in works committees.

In regard to any function, the powers of a works committee will be controlled in accordance with paragraph (13) under procedure.

(1) The issue and revision of works rules.

(2) The distribution of working hours, breaks, time recording, etc.

(3) The payment of wages (time, form of pay ticket, etc.), explanation of methods of payment, the adjustment of piece prices, subject to district or national agreements, records of piece prices, deductions, etc.

(4) The settlement of grievances.

(5) Holiday arrangements.

(6) Questions of physical welfare (provision of meals, drinking water, lavatories, and washing accommodations, cloak· rooms, ventilation, heating and sanitation, accidents, safety appliances, first aid, ambulance, etc.).

(7) Questions of discipline and conduct as between management and workpeople (malingering, bullying, timekeeping, publicity in regard to rules, supervision of notice boards, etc.). (8) Terms of engagement of workpeople.

(9) The training of apprentices and young persons.

(10) Technical library, lectures on the technical and social aspects of the industry.

(11) Suggestions of improvements in method and organization of work, the testing of suggestions.

(12) Investigation of circumstances tending to reduce effi

ciency or in any way to interfere with the satisfactory working

of the factory.

(13) Collections (for clubs, charities, etc.).

(14)

(15)

Entertainments and sports.

The provision of facilities for the workers' side of the joint committee (or of a departmental committee, if any) to conduct its own work.

JOINT INDUSTRIAL COUNCILS AND
TRADE BOARDS1

(a) Joint Industrial Councils

By far the most important development of industrial organisation since the appearance of the first edition of this Memorandum has been the publication of the reports of the Reconstruction Sub-Committee on relations between employers and employed, presided over by the Right Hon. J. H. Whitley, M.P., and the formation of joint standing industrial councils in several important industries, on the lines advocated by that Committee. In view of the importance of the "Whitley Scheme," and its strong resemblance to the proposals contained in this Memorandum, it seems desirable to give some account of the reports themselves and of the action which has been taken to give effect to them.

The terms of reference to the Whitley Committee were:(1) To make and consider suggestions for securing a per

manent improvement in the relations between employers and workmen.

(2) To recommend means for securing that industrial conditions affecting the relations between employers and workmen shall be systematically reviewed by those concerned, with a view to improving conditions in the future.

In March, 1917, the Committee submitted an Interim Report, recommending the establishment in all well-organised trades of joint standing industrial councils, representative of employers and employed, and in July of that year a circular letter was addressed by the Ministry of Labour to all the principal employers' associations and trade unions, asking for their

1 From Memorandum on the Industrial Situation After the War. Garton Foundation Report. Revised Ed. London, 1919.