Productivity deal at Gestetner

Some sections of Gestetner workers have received high bonus payments in the first few weeks.

But all workers must be warned not to be fooled by this and to prepare themselves for the dangers that lie The 'Daily Telegraph' of October 14 reported 'Sales in the first half (of the year) show an increase of 15 per cent to £29.8 million and pretax profits including income from investments and deposits have improved by a quarter to £4.05 million ... and with higher sales at 13.2 per cent they are the highest ever achieved in the first half of the year-normally the poorer of the two'.

This is more profit than for the whole of the year ending March 30, 1964 which amounted to £3,689 million.

The "Telegraph' goes on to state :

'Possibly more important in terms of profit may be the factory reorganization which began at Tottenham last week and which is hoped will yield some tangible benefits in terms of productivity during the second half.

Since the scheme is being introduced gradually and involves personnel [our emphaSiS] rather than equipment, production should not be adversely affected. A new store-house for container-loading should facilitate dispatch 01 exports.' At present there appears to be a boom in office equipment, but the market is dependent on the other industries to which office equipment is supplied.

Unmistakable

Throughout world trade there is an unmistakable trend to recession, a trend which is reflected in many of the countries to which Gestetner export, particularly the United States, where they hope to sell their new machines.

A similar trend can be seen in the car industry in which production has been extensively cut back, not only in Britain but throughout Europe.

The employers' aim in these circumstances is not simply to produce more, but to produce more cheaply.

Gestetner workers have already come into the lowerpaid category; semi-skilled men with families have been taking home around £15 basic over the past year and working plenty of overtime to make this up.

As overtime has to be paid at time-and-a-half, management began to look for ways of getting extra production more cheaply.

During 1967 they brought in a firm of consultants who worked out a scheme based on available production figures.

Payment was to be made for 'hours saved'.

This meant, for example, tors were hormally worked each week to produce a certain quantity of work and this quantity was now produced in 40 hours by extra effort, payment would be made for the six hours saved.

As the payment offered was based on the average hourly rate in the factory and not the equivalent time-and-a-half received on overtime the workers rejected this.

The new scheme is far more subtle.

Back in 1961 a bonus scheme was first introduced in settlement of a pay claim which began in the die casting shop.

This provided for everyone to receive an equal amount based on each month's output from the factory. At first the scheme yielded an average bonus of about £5 a month.

But during 1966, the year the Wilson government introduced its Prices and Incomes Act, the bonus dropped to only a few shillings some months and even nothing. The union, which is 100 per cent organized in the company, demanded inspection of the books.

On the basis that it was impossible to discover how the bonus was calculated, the 1961 scheme was rejected and talks began for the introduction of a new scheme that could be understood.

In the background, of course, was the desire of the employers in Britain to replace existing methods of payment by Measured-Day Work through productivity deals and their reliance on the trade union and Labour bureaucracy to help them do this.

A lieu bonus of £5 15s a month was introduced while the consultants were brought in.

Though the factory leadership originally claimed oppose the stop-watch, it was introduced in return for an increase in the lieu bonus to £7 15s a month.

What had produced the change ?

major factor was, undoubtedly, the sell-out of the engineers' pay claim.

Three million engineers came out on the one-day strike for £2 a week without strings only to be lumbered with 6s and a further os the next year, and a whole assortment of strings including the latest work-study techniques.

In practice, the strings were being implemented by rightwing, centrist, and Stalinist stewards alike, well in advance of the final settlement.

The claim was sold out the moment strings were introduced into negotiations earlier in the year.

The new scheme was implemented and the lieu bonus consolidated on to the rate, less the increase given for work-study.

The present scheme is a section incentive scheme.

A fast worker is encouraged to 'gee up' his slower colleague, otherwise he will not receive the amount for his effort.

Each is paid according to the performance level of the section at a rate based on their rate of pay. Therefore a section which reaches a higher performance level than another may receive a smaller bonus if their rate of pay is less.

The stage is set for divide and rule.

The scheme was accepted by ballot vote following a mass meeting at which officials could not answer many of the questions asked by the members.

Consolidation

One steward stated that they would be voting in the dark. However, the consolidation of the lieu bonus less the increase swung the vote in favour.

As the scheme is being introduced shop by shop, those sections in which the scheme is still not implemented receive half the average incentive bonus of sections where the scheme is operating.

The scheme was introduced four weeks ago in the die casting shop, which had registered the strongest vote against the deal.

Many workers in the shop consider they have been singled out for rough treatment from the management. One worker pointed out that although the floor were entitled to challenge any job for times, management had neglected to give times to a large proportion of the shop, even though time studies took place a year ago and very few jobs are untimed.

The shop decided not to challenge any times until more were available.

The shop felt that they had no way of checking how much bonus was being earned-no documentation was made available for inspection.

For the purposes of the new scheme, the die casting shop is divided into six bonus sections.

Some have received no bonus since the scheme was implemented; not even since the times have been challenged and new times given.

Others have earned bonus in some weeks and not in others.

Workers feel that the bonus paid bears little relation to the amount of work being produced.

Setters in the shop came out on strike and won a full backlevel for themselves and, as a result, similarly graded workers throughout the factory.

The rest of the shop has been working to rule since December 2 in support of their demands for the necessary documentation to be made available to check their bonus and for payment of the factory average bonus for the first two weeks of implementation.

This is to compensate for the lack of bonus payment which, they say, is due to the management's failure to implement the scheme properly during that time.

This resulted in a big drop in the bonus paid to those shops where the deal was not yet implemented.

If the die casters win and get back-payment the other shops should also be entitled to it.

One feature of the scheme is the setting up of a bonus committee, comprising management and unions, and various sub-committees where desired.

Bureaucratic

Between them and the works' committee there nough bureaucratic machiner • Slow down and confuse th best of claims.

The present scheme is only the first stage.

There must inevitably be more stages ahead — more agreements, more Clauses to tie up the workforce.

It must also be borne in mind that rapidly rising prices will rocket should Britain join the Common Market, not to mention what would happen were there another devaluation.

Big bonuses can be earned now, but these increases in the wage packet will be quickly swallowed up.

In a few months those whose work has been considerably speeded up may find themselves taking home a pay packet worth as little or even less than the one they were earning before the scheme began.

With the onset of a recession, many could find themselves out of work, despite noredundancy clauses.

It is these prospects which are driving the working class into action.

On the one hand lower-paid workers such as dustmen and miners are striking for pay increases and on the other the dockers are rejecting Phase Two of Devlin, even with a big wages offer, because they are determined to resist the productivity strings.

The die casters at Gestetner are equally aware the dangers of productivity deals were prepared to risk losing bonus payment rather than place themselves in the hands of the management.

Leading shop stewards, while giving assurances of 100 per cent backing to the die casters at the beginning, subsequently did all they could to oppose them.

Some other sections are opposed to the agreement.

They must see that the road of struggle against productivity deals is the road to the working class taking power.

Under the present leadership in Gestetner, the road leads to more and more productivity deals.

Under the engineers' agreement, the unions are being committed to introducing more and more strings such as job evaluation.

If Ford's is anything to go by, penalty clauses can well be expected in the future.