Women in the Printing Trades Part 32

The printing trade in Birmingham is slackest in August and September.

The busiest times are November, December, and towards Easter time. In the best businesses the hands are asked to take half-holiday in turns in slack times, or short hours are worked, but the managers appeared to make every effort to keep the workers employed as far as possible, and in no cases actually to dismiss hands. In the worst businesses dismissal in slack times is common.

_Overtime and the Factory Laws._

Only one employer considered that the factory laws against overtime militated against women's employment. All spoke of their endeavour to reduce overtime, owing to the fact that their union men asked one and a half and twice usual rate. No employer acknowledged that women were ever kept overtime, although, from the account of one worker, apparently this does sometimes occur.

All concurred that the cheapness of women's work compared to men's outweighed any inconvenience arising from special legislation for women and young persons. In no case was the cheapness of women's work attributed to legislation, but to absence of unionism and different standards of life for men and women, and inferiority of physical strength and mental ingenuity, and also to custom.