§ MR. CUNINGHAME GRAHAM (Lanarkshire, N.W.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for War whether he is aware that the stokers in the Royal Arsenal Gas Factory work on an average 81 hours per week, and receive pay at the rate of 5d. an hour, whether in the day or night; that they have to wheel their coke in the open air for a distance of 50 yards in all weather while in a very high state of perspiration; that the lobby in which the men have to change their clothes and take their meals has an open cesspool in the corner, is insufficiently ventilated, and often filled with sulphurous fumes; and, whether he will take steps to reduce the hours that the men have to work at this exhausting labour to eight per day, to have a covered way erected for their protection when wheeling, and to have a new and properly-ventilated lobby built wherein the men can take their meals?
§ * MR. E. STANHOPEThe stokers in the gas factory are paid for 12 hours a day for six days a week, which includes time for meals and resting between the draws or heats. Their hours do not exceed those of the ordnance factories generally. The coke has to be wheeled some 30 to 50 yards in the open air, but not necessarily when the men are in a high state of perspiration. A covered way would be useless, as the coke has to be spread over a wide area. There is no cesspool in the lobby referred to, and it is fairly ventilated, but, being close to the retorts and purifiers, the smell of the gasworks occasionally enters. I am informed that a reduction in the hours of labour would be against the custom of the trade, and that it would be resented by the men at the present rate of wages.
§ MR. C. GRAHAMIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that there is an agitation going on among the men at 533 this moment in favour of a reduction of their labour; that the men have to leave the furnaces and to go into the open air while in a high state of perspiration? May I ask further what are the ordinary hours of labour per day in the gas factory?
§ * MR. E. STANHOPEIncluding the intervals for rest, I believe that the hours of labour are 12.