Labour's First Year : 1945-46
1946 1946 1940s 27 pages requires it. There is nothing in my experience more heartening than this : That devices of management which give a lift to the human spirit turn out so often to be the most "efficient" methods.... There is no other way. No code of laws or regulations can po...
| Institution: | MCR - The Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick |
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| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
London : Common Wealth Publications Committee
1946
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10796/AC25AB03-E0DB-4546-82EA-B462BFA0031A http://hdl.handle.net/10796/CA950342-4662-408F-AF7E-8E5830273D25 |
| Summary: | 1946
1946
1940s
27 pages
requires it. There is nothing in my experience more heartening than this : That devices of management which give a lift to the human spirit turn out so often to be the most "efficient" methods.... There is no other way. No code of laws or regulations can possibly be detailed enough to direct the precise course of resource development. No district attorney or gestapo could, for long, hope to enforce such a regime. No blueprints or plans can ever be comprehensive enough... for so ever-changing an enterprise. It is the people or nothing." In this country, also, a number of individual firms have found that participation of their workers in decisions on questions of working conditions, discipline and production has paid ample dividends. One may quote the complicated system of Shop Committees and Works Councils established by Cadbury's, for which it has been claimed that it provides "a clear channel upward and downward between the individual employee and the Board, replacing as far as possible the personal contact which was a characteristic of the business when it was a ' family concern'." (A Review of the Inter-war Years). A final example of the success which can attend a form of Workers' Control may be drawn from a still stranger quarter — a Department of the British Civil Service. Detailed organisational reforms carried out by the Revenue Department during the War originated from the staff, who used the almost moribund Whitley Council system to get their views put before the official side. It is notable that in this case the initiative came from the "workers." Which Way Will Labour Jump? The Government's attitude towards Workers' Control has been put to one major test only during its first year of office. This arose in the Coal Nationalisation Bill, which, as presented to the Commons, contained no provision for the appointment of miners' representatives to the various controlling Boards and Committees, and no statutory obligation to use Joint Production machinery. This last point was eventually put right when the Government accepted a Conservative amendment! As passed into law, however, the Bill still made no provision for the appointment of workers' representatives as such, although when the names of those appointed to the National Coal Board were announced it was found that two of the members were of working-class origin. When the Minister of Fuel and Power, Mr. Shinwell, was asked why he had not adhered to the terms of the Labour Party's Bill of 1937, which had provided for miners' representatives to be appointed to the proposed National Coal Board, the District Boards and the Pit Production Committees, he replied that he and his colleagues had had a lot of experience since those days — meaning, apparently, that they had ceased to believe in Workers' Control! 21
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| Physical Description: | TEXT |