Labour and Production
Great importance obviously attaches to the statcment, made by Mr. Arthur Deakin, Mr. Bevin's successor as Secretary of the National Union of Transport Workers, at the annual conference of his union on Tuesday, that both direction of labour and payment by results might have to come. Mr. Isaacs, the Minister of Labour, has declared in favour of the principle of payment by results, and in the building industry in particular something of the kind is badly needed.. But the suspicion that payment by results means over- driving dies hard, and there is likely to be considerable resistance to any extensive application of the principle. It will remove Many difficulties in the way of sound progress in this direction if leaders like Mr. Deakin give it their blessing. After all, piece-work is the rule in many industries, and where there is a reasonable understand- ing between management and men it should be possible elsewhere by adopting payment by results to increase both output and the men's earnings. Direction of labour is far more difficult, particu- larly when in view of the housing shortage it will often be impossible for a man's family to move with him: If, moreover, direction by compulsion is undesirable, as in most cases it unquestionably is, compulsion by financial inducement is almost equally so. It creates certain pampered trades, and produces inequalities between different classes of workers, which Mr. Deakin in the same speech emphatically condemned. On the other hand, the Government would have general support if by closing down unproductive or actually anti-social industries like football pools it compelled those employed therein, together with young men in great cities who seem to thrive on having no visible means of support, to do some solid and useful work. The needs of the moment abundantly justify that.
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