SPEED-UP METHODS

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 137, 11 June 1936, Page 14

SPEED-UP METHODS

INVOKED IN AUSTRALIA m ATTACK ON STANDARDS" ; CONCERN EXPRESSED

* A request that the House should appoint . a select committee to report on the benefits being received by Way-fcood-Otis (A'sia), Ltd., from the ex fsting tariff and to devise means where t>y the tariff protection extended to il should be dependent upon the observ ance of Australian industrial standards Was made by Mr. Beasley (N.S.W.) in the Australian House of Represents (ives recently, when he moved the adjournment of the House to discuss the Introduction by this firm of foreign tspeed-up" methods which were inimical to Australian economic conditions, says the Melbourne "Age/* ! Mr. Beasley asked that an inquiry Should be made into the financial Structure of Waygood-Otis to ascertain whether it was a foreign company Registered in Australia, merely to deiive particular benefits, and if such was found to be proven, to draft the iecessary legislation and taxation Measures to cover excessive profits piade in Australia. If the speed-up technique became general throughout industry, he said, it would throw thousands of men on the industrial jcrap heap, and would smash the health Of every man required to work under the system. • Registered in 1920, with a nominal capital of £1000, the company had 6een so successful that its capital now amounted to £100,000, but investment in the company had been kept a close preserve for the overseas owners. It sras, he alleged, a foreign. firm .controlled by American capital, sheltering behind the tariff wall, and at the sSme time exploiting the Australian market for the sole purpose of making hjige profits for its American owners. Yet it was introducing in its Sydney factory the most vicious forms American speed-up methods of power production. ' THE BEAUDEAU SYSTEM. "Employing' What is" known as the Beaudeaii system under an American efficiency expert, Waygood-Otis," • said Beasley, "has attempted to compel its employees .to. w6rk against a stopwatch at times to-Ilie l-100th~ partrof'a second. The purpose is to increase production at the expense of the health of the employees It also means , {hat additional men are thrown on the unemployment market. The first trial of the system resulted in the dismissal of six men." Subsequently,the men stopped work, arid the management agreed to eliminate the stop-watch,; but production had no sooner recommenced than the agreement was torn up and the stop-watch and other speed-up devices were reintroduced. Again therk were dismissals, aijd again the men ceased work, demanding that ttt<3 management should honour its agreement. ''This Government must show where ' It| stands," declared Mr. Beasley. "If jt= fails to take: action against Way-good-Otis, then it is. condoning the introduction; of tflfs r system into" Australian industrJr and the. unnecessary dispfecemen£ ofhuman'. labour %). provide increased*" dividends for" an American trust. This Government "becomes a party to one.:pf the.. most diabolical drives Australian conditions unless it acts immediately-against Way-good-Otis. ; THE TRADE UNIONS, . ;?The trade unions are no longer prepared to be a shuttlecock between tlje Courts^'the Tariff Board, and the Parliament. The Industrial Courts have refused to intervene while the Court shelters behind Parliament and Parliament behind the Court. If neither the Court nor the Tariff Board can protect Australian workers, then this House must, provide the necessary machinery to re-establish Australian conditions for-the workers." •Mr. Hughes, Who was the Minister hi charge of the House, in reply, said any request that the operations of the Waygood-Otis .Company be made the subject of inquiry by a special Parliamentary Committee was futile. The ri&tter was one .of great importance, t>6t unhappily the Commonwealth Parliament had ilo power whatever over ttie things that really mattered in the wprld. "Theoretically we can make wpr and peace," he said, "and occupy our time more or less profitably in the discussion of' various matters, such as taxation, but regarding the economic problems confronting the world today we can do nothing. This Parliament cannot prescribe rates of wages-or interfere with conditions destroying the wjelfare of the people of the country, np matter how provocative those conditions may be." «Mr. Hughes said .the' American •■speeding-up methods" were common to the world-wide tendency to develop an economic system in a direction that would inevitably lead to an impasse. Every new invention' increased 'unemployment, and while some of those thrown out of Work were absorbed in other directions, there was always a residue of labour with which Parliament had to deal; but yet was powerless to do anything. "an idle Gesture." ;"We have no power," he said, "to deal with any company or its behaviour, although we can, of course, present it from establishing itself. But we have no powers as regards corpora* tions or industrial matters, and to appoint a special committee of inquiry would be an idle gesture. Oyer and over again we have had occasion to lament our limited powers. While I appreciate the importance of the matter raised, I 'would be surprised to learn that it is the only case of the speeding-up methods in operation in this country." Mr. Garden-(N.S.W.): It is the first case of the employment of this system. 'Mr. Hughes: Any distinction is only irt the matter of degree. The system is ! inherent to the economic system. "We have asked the p.eople time and Again to give us industrial power. '•Sir F. H. Stewart (N.S.W.): Ask them to give the Commonwealth Parliament full powers. .Mr. Hughes said on behalf of the Government that the request' for the special committea could not be acceded to, but that reply arose purely from the limitations the Constitution placed upon Parliament. He was opposed to futile inquiries. The company referred to was merely "one stride ahead of the economic system." Mr. Lazzarini (N.s!w.) said that no matter whether it was foreign or British capital which sought to establish in Australia factories in which existed such insidious conditions, Labour would oppose the introduction of such capital. Such conditions destroyed tfje enjoyment of fife and the health of the artisans who had to work under such conditions. The system originated in America, and formerly figured largely in business life there. Such conditions, he contended, amounted to «.tearing to pieces of the Christian #Ode. The motion was defeated-by 29 votes