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40
longer of serious concern and verminous premises only infrequently
discovered, the supervision of outwork has become of less importance
than heretofore. Nevertheless, the information supplied, which it
must be remembered does not embrace all forms of outwork, is still of
use in that it enables some supervision of the home circumstances.
A proportion of the homes have been visited each year and the
conditions are on the whole satisfactory and no evidence has been
found of children being required to spend long hours on this type of
work or of it being carried out by groups of persons working in unhygienic
ill ventilated and ill lit rooms as occurred frequently at
one time. The rate of pay for outwork may not be good but it often
provides occupation for those who for one reason or another are unable
to go out to work and eases financial stresses.
The number of firms employing outworkers in
1955 was 200
The number of Finsbury outworkers employed by
them was 365
The number of non Finsbury outworkers employed by
them was 4,436
The number of Finsbury outworkers employed by firms
outside the Borough was 150
The total number of Finsbury outworkers employed by
firms in or outside the Borough was 515
Of these 119 were firms and 396 homeworkers.
Number of visits paid to homes 257
The registers of outworkers which firms are required to maintain
are inspected as part of the routine during the inspection of the
factories concerned.
Comparing these figures with those for pre-war years it is noted
that there are now only 200 firms employing outworkers whereas in 1938
the number was 744. This may be largely due to much destruction in
the industrial parts of the Borough. On the other hand outworkers
now employed are 4,801 which is little short of the 4,959 employed in
1938 and it, therefore, seems that outwork by firms may have tended to
increase in volume. The total number of workers employed in Finsbury
was 1,319 in 1938 as against the 515 given above for 1955. The fall
in the number is proportionately more than the drop in population.