§ Mr. Sutcliffeasked the Minister of Labour whether he can state those heavy industries which maintain an eight-hour day, and those in Which a seven-and-a-half-hour day is now in force?
§ Mr. E. BrownIncluded in industries, in which the normal length of each shift, for workpeople engaged on processes which are carried on continuously by day and night, is usually eight hours, Inclusive of meal times (subject in some eases to a shorter shift on Saturday) are:
- Coke Ovens and By-product Works.
- Cement Manufacturer.
- Brick, Tile, etc., Manufacture.
- Heavy Chemical Manufacture.
- Pig Iron Manufacture.
- Iron and Steel Smelting, Rolling, etc.
- Non-ferrous Metals, Extracting, Refining and Rolling.
- Tinplate Manufacture.
- Iron and Steel Tube Making.
- Iron Ore Mining and Quarrying.
The practice as regards stoppages for meals varies in the different industries and, to some extent, at different works. In some cases there are recognised meal intervals varying as a rule from 15 to 30 minutes, whilst in others no break for meals is formally recognised.
In industries in which work is not performed on the basis of continuous shifts the normal weekly working hours are in many cases 47 or 48, exclusive of meal times, but as the working week usually consists of 5½ days, the length of each day's work (except on Saturday) exceeds eight hours.
In the coal mining industry the hours of underground workers are 7½ per shift, reckoned from the time the last
* In a number of cases the system consists of four shifts of six hours in each day.
1428Wman in the shift leaves the surface to that at which the first man in the shift returns to the surface. On the average a man will work this period plus one winding time, the average winding time being half-an-hour.