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11
I would like to acknowledge here the excellent co-operation which existed between the
School and my Department. Approximately 40 per cent, of the investigations were carried
out by the School and 60 per cent, by your officers.
We had in mind that there was a possibility that outwork could be carried out under
very adverse conditions, that rates of pay might be inadequate, and that children might be
employed to the prejudice of their health.
In the past there have been recommendations from various bodies that outwork should
cease.
The survey showed that by and large the outworkers in the borough were female, and
in not a single case was it found that outwork was being done by a home worker under 23 years
of age. In most cases women were doing home work in order to augment the family income,
working at such hours as suited themselves and looking after their homes without undue
interference with the daily routine. In that the home work was carried out in the living room
it did to this extent interfere somewhat with comfort. In many cases women were carrying
out work which they had performed as either full-time or part-time workers in a factory before
marriage.
Home work was generally regular throughout the year, apart from the making of
Christmas crackers which lasted from Whitsun until the Christmas season.
The time spent on home work varied considerably, from two hours a day upwards.
The rates of pay were in accordance with those paid in the trade concerned, and complaints
about remuneration were unusual, earnings ranging from 10s. to over £3 per week. In some
cases much larger sums were being earned. Sweated labour does not appear to be occurring.
The reasons for choosing home work appeared to be the need for the care of children and
the reluctance or inability to leave them in day nurseries or with daily guardians. It is possible,
however, that the fact that there were children encouraged the housewife and mother to
undertake home work in order-to augment her husband's wages. Again, elderly and partially
disabled persons found outwork a congenial method of increasing their income and keeping
themselves occupied. There were some persons who preferred home work because of the
liberty it gave them.
It is a fact that in St. Pancras some very highly skilled embroidery and tailoring work
is being carried out by expert craftsmen in their own homes.
In the report prepared by the Seminar of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical
Medicine a reference is made to the fact that some of the workers in the boot and shoe trade
were keen individualists and enjoyed freedom to work when and how they liked and to stop
work entirely for a period if they so wished. Again, in the tailoring trade it is stated that the
incentive to work at home seemed to be the good wages that could be earned whilst retaining
some independence.
A survey of this description is undertaken in the belief that a set of circumstances exists
and requires investigation. The investigation, however, must be entirely objective and the
decisions reached must not be prejudiced by preconceived ideas. In this survey I think it
can be claimed that the impressions we have formed are free and unprejudiced for it is a fact
that in some ways I have come to the conclusion that the conditions which we feared do not
in fact exist. By and large, outwork is carried out under satisfactory conditions. Children
are not employed. There is little interference with the comfort of the home, the family income
is raised, leisure is well filled and the old and cripplied are provided with remunerative occupation
and young mothers are enabled to work and yet look after their children.