MINE LABOUR CONTROL

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23744, 16 September 1942, Page 5

MINE LABOUR CONTROL

BRITISH MINISTRY’S , ORDER FALLING OUTPUT (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright.) CRec. 11 p.m.) LONDON, Sept. 14. The Minister of Labour (Mr Ernest Bevin) has made a new order for the coal industry, under which it is an offence for a miner or other employee to absent himself without reasonable excuse, to be persistently late, to fail to obey reasonable orders,-or to behave in such a manner as to impede production. The coal industry is thus brought into line with other war industries. The industrial correspondent of the “Daily Mail" says: “The day after the Dieppe raid the output of many mines went up as much as 80 per cent, with the miners temporarily imbued with a ‘work for victory’ spirit, which for months has actuated their leaders, but which cannot establish itself on the coal face. , , “The output also rose before the August holidays—for the different reason that the miners wanted holiday monev—but after the holidays attendance was poor. Only 69 out of 167 miners turned up at one South Wales mine. All the absentees were under 28 years of, age. , • , “The apathy and restlessness of young miners, engendered from the bitterness of their bringing up and from traditional grievances, is the real cause of the falling output. They probably do not amount tip 5 per cent, of the miners, but their damage to the output is considerably greater.