The Technical Conference held at Geneva under the auspices of
the International Labour Office must not be written down as a failure because it did not succeed, in a fortnight's sustained discussion, in framing a complete draft convention in respect of hours of work in coal mines, let alone any useful measure of agreement on wages and conditions of employment. We have to remember that until the discovery of the new technique of international co-operation, it had apparently never occurred to the authorities in each State that the problems of coal concerned all nations, in other words, that the pros- perity of each depended on the prosperity of all.
Consequently, there are considerable variations as regards methods of calculating working time, arrangements for overtime, breaks, &c. What this Conference has done is to clear the ground, and to narrow down and closely define the issues. Agreement was reached that working hours should be calculated on the bank to bank basis, although every single proposal as to the actual number of hours was rejected. We should bear -in mind, however, that the task of this meeting was exploration. It is now for the Governing Body of the Office to formulate the actual. resolution on hours in coal mines to be included in the Agenda of its General Conference in June.
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