The decision of the Court, issued on 13th March, 1926, was, by a majority, against the workers on the first point. As regards the question of external assistance, the Court suggested that Scottish Oils, Limited, and the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (which owns all the ordinary shares in Scottish Oils, Limited) might consider the possibility of offering some assistance (on lines explained in detail in the report), and that H.M. Government should also consider the granting of a more favourable Admiralty contract. It recommended such assistance on the ground that it is in the national interest that the shale mines of the Lothians should not be allowed to become derelict, and having regard to the serious loss to the population of the Lothians if the shale industry were to disappear

Courts of Inquiry.

No Courts of Inquiry under Part II of the Industrial Courts Act were set up during the year under review. The report of the Court of Inquiry appointed in 1925 regarding railway shopmen, London and North Eastern Railway and Cheshire Lines (see Report for the year 1925, p. 26), was received, however, during the year. Particulars are given below.

RAILWAY SHOPMEN, LONDON & NORTH EASTERN RAILWAY AND CHESHIRE LINES.

The Court of Inquiry appointed to inquire into the threatened dispute concerning the claim of the National Union of Railwaymen for the application of decision no. 728 of the Industrial Court, dated 8th July, 1922, to the various classes of men employed in the several departments of the railway shops of the Great Central Section of the London and North Eastern Railway Company and the Cheshire Lines Committee issued its report on 8th February. (Cmd. 2583, 1926.)

After reviewing the circumstances leading up to the dispute and analysing the contentions of the parties the report sets out the conclusions of the Court as follows:

"That the immediate cause of the threatened dispute is the refusal of the companies to accede to the demand of the National Union of Railwaymen for the application of decision no. 728 to railway shopmen employed on the Great Central Section of the London and North Eastern Railway and the Cheshire Lines.

"That decision no. 728 is now in operation and working satisfactorily on all the railways in Great Britain with the exception of the Great Central Section of the London and North Eastern Railway and the Cheshire Lines.

"That, in the absence of exceptional circumstances, it is desirable in the interests of the railway industry that the terms and conditions of employment of railway shopmen should be uniform throughout Great Britain.

6

That the railway shopmen on the Great Central Section and the Cheshire Lines have always been paid local district rates, and the craft unions are to-day strongly opposed to the application of decision no. 728 to those railways.

"That the London and North Eastern Railway Company and the Cheshire Lines Committee are at the present time opposed to any alteration in existing rates because (inter alia), (a) the companies do not want to interfere with the present amicable relations that exist between the craft unions. and themselves, and (b) the application of decision no. 728 would, with the added bonus of 6s. 6d. a week, entail upon the companies an extra expense of upwards of £90,000 a year, a sum which the companies can ill afford at the present time owing to the depressed condition of the railway industry.

"That, upon the evidence placed before us, we are not satisfied that the majority of the railway shopmen on the Great Central Section of the London and North Eastern Railway and the Cheshire Lines desire the application of decision no. 728."

The report proceeds :

"With the railway companies and the craft unions opposed to its application as hereinbefore mentioned, and in the absence of evidence of a strong demand by the shopmen in favour of its application, we do not deem it advisable that decision no. 728 should be adopted on the Great Central Section of the London and North Eastern Railway and the Cheshire Lines at the present time.

"If, after 1st January, 1927, the position of the railway industry has improved and/or the railway companies are not opposed to, and/or evidence is forthcoming that there is a demand by a substantial proportion of the railway shopmen on the Great Central Section of the London and North Eastern Railway and the Cheshire Lines for the application of decision no. 728 then, in our opinion, the question of the application of the decision should be re-considered and, in the absence of agreement between the National Union of Railwaymen, the craft unions and the companies, we think it is desirable that the issue between the parties should by consent be referred to the Industrial Court for decision.

"In our opinion, the London and North Eastern Railway Company should continue to pay the special allowances until decision no. 728 is applied to the Great Central Section and the Cheshire Lines."

The special allowances referred to were agreed between the Company, the National Union of Railwaymen and the Workers' Union, pending a decision on the main question.

CHAPTER II.

EMPLOYMENT.*

GENERAL.

The history of employment in 1926 is largely the history of the general strike and the coal dispute. At the end of January the proportion of insured workpeople unemployed was 11 per cent. This figure declined steadily to 9.1 per cent. at the end of April when, for the first time since the post-war slump, the number of those registered at the Employment Exchanges as unemployed was below a million. Iron and steel manufacture, shipbuilding, marine engineering and the linen and jute trades still showed high figures of unemployment; but in most other industries there was improvement, and and the steady general fall of the live register held out some definite prospect of a trade revival. The general strike badly disturbed the growing confidence, and subsequently the increasing shortage of fuel and the high price of imported coal which were due to the coal stoppage completely checked the improvement, unemployment rising to 14.6 per cent. by the end of June. From this period there was a slight improvement in the general position.

At the end of April, just before the coal stoppage began, nearly 98,000 persons were unemployed in the coal mining industry. Coke oven and by-product plants were among those most severely affected by the stoppage, the figure of unemployment in that industry reaching 72.6 per cent. at the end of October, and in some of the more important areas practically the whole insured population in the industry was out of work. In iron and steel production unemployment rose from 16.1 per cent. on 26th April to nearly 67 per cent. on 26th July. On 22nd November it was still 62.8 per cent., but within a month after the resumption of work the percentage had fallen to 45.

Unemployment in the pottery industry rose from 13.2 per cent. in April to 58.6 per cent. in June. The potteries area was favourably situated for obtaining coal from the Midland collieries, which began work before the other coalfields, and a certain transference to oil fuel also occurred. The result was that by 22nd November unemployment had fallen to 18.4 per cent.

In the enginering industry unemployment rose from 11.2 per cent. in April to 18.7 per cent. in November. It fell again to 15.7 per cent. within a month after the reopening of the pits.

* As regards Juveniles see Chapter IV.

Among cotton textiles unemployment rose from 9.8 per cent. in April to 28 per cent. in July. From that stage, owing to the distribution of imported coal, the situation improved steadily month by month, and by the end of December the figure was only 13.2 per cent. A similar experience occurred in the woollen and worsted industry.

In shipping and docks, where the percentage of unemployment had been high before the coal stoppage, the same increase of unemployment did not occur, as the employment arising from the import of foreign coal on a large scale took the place to some extent of that ordinarily afforded by the export traffic in British coal.

In many smaller industries, while there was a rapid increase of unemployment during May and June, the improvement set in early, and by the end of November the numbers unemployed were little, if any, greater than at the end of April. The industries engaged in the manufacture of food, clothing and drink euffered little change. Such variations in employment as occurred were no more than the ordinary seasonal changes.

The numbers on the live register of the Employment Exchanges in Great Britain at the end of each month for the years 1923 to 1926 were as follows:

Work as Employment Agencies.

A detailed account of the Labour Exchanges Act, 1909, and the regulations made thereunder is given in the Report for 1923-4, pages 78-83. There have been no amendments of the Act in 1926, nor any substantial change in administrative policy.

* For Administrative Divisions, with areas, population, and numbers of Employment Exchanges and Branch Employment Offices, see Appendix IV.

The total number of vacancies notified to and filled by the Employment Exchanges* during the years 1923 to 1926 are as follows:

Distributed as between men, women and juveniles the figures

* Including Branch Employment Offices and the Juvenile Employment Bureaux of Local Education Authorities having choice of employment schemes in operation.

"Vacancies filled" include certain types of cases (described as class B placings) in which the work of the Exchanges was limited; for instance, obtaining for an employer former employees. In the monthly statistics published in the Ministry of Labour Gazette the number of class B placings is shown as a footnote; this number was 253,344 in 1925 and 248,537 in 1926.

This total was composed of 114,872 boys and 105,353 girls. Corresponding figures for the years 1911-25 are set out on p. 32 of the Report for the year 1925.