TOTAL FACTORIES OPERATING CONTINUOUSLY AND TOTAL WORKERS, AND PER CENT OF FACTORIES AND OF WORKERS HAVING SPECIFIED NUMBER OF HOURS TO A SHIFT, BY INDUSTRIES, 1906. According to the preceding table 1.6 per cent of the establishments and parts of establishments and 2.9 per cent of the workers had a working shift of 8 hours per day; 95.2 per cent of the establishments and parts of establishments and 88.4 per cent of the workers had a working day of 12 hours; 3.2 per cent of the establishments and parts of establishments operating continuously and 8.7 per cent of the workmen employed in this class were establishments and workers with a shift whose duration was either 8 or 12 hours and included some glass workers and maltsters who did not work in shifts. The 8-hour shift, therefore, occurred but seldom and the 12-hour shift was almost the uniform rule in continuous operating factories. It will be noted that the food products industry is responsible for a large proportion of the establishments with the 12-hour day; according to a more detailed table contained in the original report, the sugar factories are responsible for 53.5 per cent of the workers having a 12-hour day; in the sugar industry no establishment reported a working shift of 8 hours. According to the report the working hours in the establishments operating continuously are, as a matter of fact, not so unfavorable as the data in the table might indicate; the duration of the shift in the establishments operating continuously includes the mealtimes prescribed by law, and, as is shown below, such rest periods for three-fourths of the continuous operating establishments and for over half of the workers employed therein amount to more than 1 hour per day. The metal working industry group shows 12.8 per cent of the workers in continuous establishments with a working day of 8 hours; the group ranking next in order is that of stones, earths, etc., with 9.6 per cent, chemical industry with 7.3 per cent, and power plants with 4.4 per cent of all the workmen in establishments operating continuously. The 8-hour shift is found least in the food products industry on account of the presence of the sugar factories, while in the woodworking and mining, agricultural, etc., products factories, the 8-hour shift does not occur at all, although it should be stated that the number of establishments in this class is respectively 2 and 3 and the number of workmen employed is small. A few establishments operating continuously have a shift of more than 12 hours per day for any regular shift. The following table shows the number of these establishments and the number of employees: NUMBER AND PER CENT OF FACTORIES IN CONTINUOUS OPERATION, AND OF WORKERS THEREIN, HAVING SHIFTS OF MORE THAN 12 HOURS AND HAVING ONE WEEKLY SHIFT OF MORE THAN 18 HOURS, BY INDUSTRY GROUPS, 1906. 1 Of all continuously operating establishments and parts of establishments in the respective industry groups. 2 Of all males employed in continuously operating establishments and parts of establishments in the respective industry groups. Of all females employed in continuously operating establishments and parts of establishments in the respective industry groups. Of all persons employed in continuously operating establishments and parts of establishments in the respective industry groups. In addition there were 8 parts of establishments each having 2 male employees without change of shift. In addition there were 2 parts of establishments each having 2 male employees without change of shift. Less than one-tenth of 1 per cent. According to the preceding table 28 establishments and parts of establishments or 0.9 per cent of all such establishments operating continuously and 192 workmen or 0.2 per cent of all workmen so employed had a shift of over 12 hours per day. The second part of the preceding table shows the number of establishments and number of employees who are required to work more than 18 hours on the day when the weekly change of day and night shift is made; 137 establishments and parts of establishments or 4.2 per cent of all continuous operating establishments and 1,872 employees or 1.8 per cent of the employees in e ous operating establishments had such a shift. Most of the workers in this class are found in the food products industry, where 1,380 workers were so employed and in the chemical industry where 309 workers were so employed. In order to show what influence, if any, the size of establishment had upon the length of the shift, the following table presents the data for 9 industry groups with the establishments classified according to the number of employees: PER CENT OF FACTORIES IN CONTINUOUS OPERATION, AND OF WORKERS THEREIN, HAVING SPECIFIED NUMBER OF HOURS TO A SHIFT, IN EACH INDUSTRY GROUP, BY SIZE OF ESTABLISHMENT, 1906. DURATION OF INTERMISSIONS IN ESTABLISHMENTS NOT OPERATING CONTINUOUSLY. The duration of the intermissions or rest periods for meals, etc., is a matter of importance to the welfare of factory workers. The following table shows the facts for the establishments not operating continuously included in the present investigation: TOTAL FACTORIES NOT OPERATING CONTINUOUSLY AND TOTAL WORKERS, AND PER CENT OF FACTORIES AND OF WORKERS HAVING SPECIFIED LENGTH OF MIDDAY REST PERIODS, BY INDUSTRY GROUPS, 1906. In the establishments included in the present investigation nearly all of the workers had a regularly definitely specified noonday rest period; only in the case of 1.1 per cent of the workmen was such a regular rest period lacking, and this occurred in the establishments that specified hours of labor. In the great majority of cases the noonday intermission was one hour or less in duration; periods of more than one hour occurred in the case of more than 25 per cent of the workers in the southern geographical sections, such as the southern portions of the Empire. In the printing and publishing trades the noon intermission was more than one hour for 90.4 per cent of the workers, while in the case of the machine-building industries the proportion was 30.9 per cent, power plants 29.4 per cent, upholstering establishments 22.9 per cent, and metal working 18.9 per cent of the workers. In some industries it is customary to allow a rest period in the forenoon and also in the afternoon, usually designated as the breakfast recess or the afternoon lunch recess. The following table shows the proportion of workers in establishments not operating continuously, by industry groups, having such a rest period: PER CENT OF EMPLOYEES IN ESTABLISHMENTS NOT OPERATING CONTINUOUSLY HAVING FORENOON AND AFTERNOON REST PERIODS, BY INDUSTRY GROUPS, 1906. On an average 47.8 per cent of all the workers have an intermission for breakfast, and 33.3 per cent a similar period for afternoon lunch. The extent of these intermissions is dependent on the number of hours worked per day. The law provides that such intermissions may be omitted if the working time before the noonday rest is five hours or less, and similarly for the afternoon. Such rest periods, therefore, do not occur in those industry groups having shorter working hours; the printing and publishing trades therefore have but few such intermissions, while in most of the other industry groups, where a shorter working-day prevails, the percentage of workers with breakfast or afternoon luncheon intermissions is less than 50 per cent of all the workers. In addition, the law permits, under certain conditions, that these intermissions may be omitted, or, in the case of machinery running continuously, it may be arranged that the workers may have these meals during the operations of the plant; thus, in the textile industry, an intermission for breakfast is reported for only 31.1 per cent of the workers, and the afternoon lunch for only 19.4. per cent of the workers, although in this industry group more than half of all the workers are employed for longer than 10 hours. The above table also includes night workers, in whose case the rest periods come at corresponding intervals during the night. |