Bedaux

The origins of the dispute

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Well what they did, they brought in public school boys actually, to time girls on the jobs that they were doing. Now these boys, they didn't go for across the board moderate operator, they went for the young girls you see, and more or less chatted them up, and got these young girls on their side.

Q: So, they in fact timed people who worked fairly fast?

Oh yes indeed, they timed young girls who had just come out of school, and so... a few... whatever you got over those 60, er, 'b's a minute, you see, you got a bonus. Now our basic pay for a week's work was 32/6 (£1.62) a week, okay, that was your basic, now anything you could do above that, that was how many more garments you could get into 60 minutes, you see, over and above, then you got a bonus on it. I got my pay packet, I got two this particular day, and, er, I said, 'Oh I'm alright this week I've got some bonus', you see. So I opened my 'static' for a start, then I opened the other packet, and you wouldn't believe this, it'd got a half penny in it - it has cost more to produce that envelope than what's in it.

You can hear more of this tape on request. Contact the Records Office and quote Accession Number 000409 Collection Number LO/029/C29.

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