§ 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.