A Bonus for Miners
Yet another expedient is to be tried to induce the miners to produce more coal. An earlier attempt to reduce absenteeism by a bonus on attendance proved a failure. No greater success followed the recent increase of the national minimum wage and the satisfac- tion of other claims which, it was agreed, removed many long- standing grievances. Indeed, the output has gone down rather than up. The new scheme, which has been accepted by the Government, is for a bonus on output whenever the monthly output in a district exceeds the standard for that district by one per cent.—the increase
in pay being 3d. per shift for every additional one per cent. up to 15 per cent. It will be seen that an individual man only stands to gain when the whole district does well. The appeal is to the team—a large team, including the workers of the whole area— and when the district reaches and exceeds the target every worker in it will reap the benefit. The men will be kept informed as to what the target is and when it has been reached, and it will be to the interest of all that there should be no falling off in attendances and no slacking in the pits. The wage incentive alone appears to be of doubtful efficacy ; the hope is that the wage incentive plus a lively public opinion among the workers will spur the men to greater efforts. The Mineworkers' Federation has been doing its best to arouse its members by an appeal to patriotism, and now it is for the keener men among the rank and file to endeavour to create a feeling of esprit de corps. If there is not considerable improvement many vital industries will be seriously threatened.
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