The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING, Luceo Non Uro. SATURDAY, JUNE 19, 1926. HOURS IN MINES

Southland Times, Issue 19900, 19 June 1926, Page 6

The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING, Luceo Non Uro. SATURDAY, JUNE 19, 1926. HOURS IN MINES

The problem of the hours worked in the coal industry in Britain is not as simple as the cabled messages from London would suggest; because while the British miner is in competition with the Continental miners who receive lower wages he is actually at the coal face for a shorter period than his rivals. Mr Frank Hodges, secretary to the Miners’ International Federation, throughout the long controversy has emphasised the international character of the problems confronting the industry in Britain, and in a considered statement on the position he has dealt with the hours problem in a very interesting paper, published ’Very recently. He has shown that while,

the British miner works on seven-hour day, his rivals in Europe have to work eight hours or eight hours and a-half. He shows that the estimated working time at the coal face per day in the mines is as follows: Hours. Great Britain 5$ France 6 to 6| Belgium 6 to6i Holland 61 Germany (Ruhr) 64 Germany (Upper Silesia) 7 Czecho-Slovakia 6| to 6 J If the commission’s proposal to increase the British miner’s time underground from 74 to 84 hours was adopted, the result would be to put him at a disadvantage, but it is to be noted that the actual hewing time of the British miner is less by fifteen minutes a day than that available to the lowest of his rivals and is one hour and a-quarter less than the time available for the miner in Upper Silesia. The problem of hours is complicated by the variations in pay, because the miners on the Continent receive a lower rate so that the advantages these mines enjoy in working time is accentuated when the price of the coal produced is taken into account. Mr Hodges makes the point that if wages were reduced or hours lengthened the effect would be a reduction in the wages on the Continent so that the competition between the mines would be maintained, and price-cutting would bring the problem up anew in a few years time. The British industry must undergo reorganisation, because even the wages reduction proposed will not provide a solution alone. The warfare in Britain is playing into the hands of her rivals, but there will be no stability until, as Mr Hodges suggests, the industry takes on an international character. It is extraordinary to find a miners’ advocate taking this view, but the arguments he presents for his case are certainly impressive. In the course of them, however, he has shown that the owners who are pressing for wage reductions or some lengthening of the hours are not merely seeking to make bigger profits; they are endeavouring to lighten a handicap under which they work in their battle against the Continental mines.