Absenteeism and Production
Attention is called to another matter of the utmost urgency by the Select Committee on National Expenditure in its report on conditions in aircraft-factories. It points out that aircraft firms regard absenteeism on the part of workers as their most serious problem: High wages and Sunday labour at overtime rates are given as the main causes ; and therefore the abolition of Sunday labour is recommended in the aircraft industry. High wages present a more difficult problem, which will not be completely disposed of even if factories are induced to refrain from bidding against one another for labour and agree to observe district federation wage rates. The agreement regarding absenteeism just reached in the coal industry goes some little way towards meeting the difficulty. From June 1st all adult miners will receive an increase of is. per shift, but the receipt of the increase will be conditional upon the per- formance of a full week's work—an obviously sound principle.
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