SHORT WEIGHT

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 151, 27 June 1914, Page 13

SHORT WEIGHT

THE SHOPS AND THE PUBLIC. " While the sale of goods is regulated by large companies owning retail shops it is not possible for the assistants to give full weight to the public without falling short in their, stock," 1 said Mr. John Turner, secretary of the National Amalgamated Union of Shop Assistants, Warehousemen, and Clerks. He informed the House of Commons Committee on Short Weight that men are being summarily dismissed, withont wages, for giving short weight. Formerly m such cases they were merely reprimanded ; but since this Select Committee began its investigations greater vigilance was being exercised ; inspectors of local authorities were more activej and the large retail provision companies were very sharp on their employees. In selling such articles as tea, coffee, sugar, and cocoa, the assistant is charged by his employers for the paper supplied to him. He has to pay on every 1001b of tea an equivalent amount per 1b for 21b of paper (which means that ' he pays for 1021b of tea and gets only 1001b and 21b of paper) ; and so small a margin is allowed lor loss in handling that it is very difficult for tho assistant to give full weight. In a large shop the profit on paper alone will almost pay the wages of the staff. Mr. White, a London grocer's manager, said that under the present system of holding assistants liable for losses in handling goods in tho large retail shops it was impossible for the assistants to avoid swindling the public by giving short weight. He produced a number of thick packets in which tea is sold by a loading firm, which, he said, represented a tax on the poor of Is 8d iv tho £1.