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The new recruits for industries must come mainly
from those classes of women – for the most part married women – who
have not yet been called up. A large proportion of these can only take
part-time work.
Part-time employment has to be organized very
carefully. The worker obviously cannot travel a long distance, and often
supply and demand cannot be found in the same place. The present figure
of part-time workers is roughly estimated at about 840,00.
Here are some actual notes on a visit to a factory
employing part-time workers:
One firm, engaged on Admiralty work, and employing
about 3,000 workers, now
has 800 part-time women on its pay roll. There are three separate shifts
each day for part-time workers: 7 or 8 a.m. to 12 noon, 1 p.m. to 6
p.m., 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. The morning and afternoon shifts are made up of
women who are unable, for domestic reasons, to go into employment; the
evening shift is made up of women who are already doing a full-time job.
The evening workers come once, and in some cases twice, a week.
They arrive at the factory at 6, if possible, are
given a meal in the factory canteen, and are at their machines by 6.30.
They are taught to use machines, and at the end of the shift their
basket of articles is weighted. There is great competition between
part-timers themselves, as well as between their average output and that
of the full-time worker.
The evening workers are very enthusiastic about
their job, and practically never miss a shift; in fact, some of them
have arranged their holidays so that they are able to turn up as usual
on their night. They are tremendously grateful for the ready
co-operation they receive from the full-timers, who find nothing too
much trouble when teaching beginners. The jobs from which the evening
workers come are varied. There are a number of civil servants, shop
assistants, buyers, journalists, and many of these workers have brought
along recruits from their daytime businesses.
The usual hourly rate is paid, but as the evening
workers are already earning their living during the day, they have
decided to give this money to a war charity. This factory has arranged
with the London Passenger Transport Board for the most popular buses to
pass the factory at about 10.15 p.m. The difficulty of transport at
night has, unfortunately, prevented many people from under taking the
night shift, as it is not easy to get from the factory to the outer
parts of London at a late hour.
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