HC Deb 05 March 1896 vol 38 c189
SIR CHARLES DILKE (Gloucester, Forest of Dean)

I beg to ask the Financial Secretary to the War Office, how many men employed in the Ordnance Store Department at Woolwich Arsenal receive less than 20s. a week, and how many men there are m the manufacturing departments of the Royal Ordnance Factories at Woolwich and Enfield who are paid less than 24s. a week; and, if the system of working the 48-hours week in six days is general in Woolwich Arsenal; if not, how many men work the 48 hours in five days?

THE FINANCIAL SECRETARY TO THE WAR OFFICE (Mr. J. POWELL-WILLIAMS,) Birmingham, S.

In the Ordnance Store Department at Woolwich there are no men employed whose wages are not equivalent to 20s. a week. The number employed at that pay is 648. The system of working 48 hours a week prevails. In the Ordnance Factories at Woolwich there are 4,919 men who are rated below 24s. a week, but about 3,600 of these are on piece-work and receive more than that sum; of the remainder a considerable proportion are no longer fully competent. The system of working 48 hours in six days is general. The exceptions are night-shift men, men on special consolidated rates (as engine-drivers, stokers, and oilers), and 594 men mostly employed at the furnaces, who work 48 hours in five days a week.