March 28, 1913.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

643

HOURS OF EMPLOYMENT OF WINDING
ENGINEMEN.

Judge Ruegg’s Report.

The following is the text of the report to the Home
Secretary on the draft regulations under the Coal Mines
Act, 1911, for the hours of employment of winding
enginemen, by his Honour Judge A. H. Ruegg, K.C.:—

Having been appointed by the Reference Committee
pursuant to section 117 of the Coal Mines Act, 1911, to
hold the enquiry with reference to the draft general
regulations framed by you under section 57 (3) of the
said Act as to the hours of work of winding enginemen,
I have the honour to submit to you my decision as to
the draft Regulations which are printed in the
Appendix, showing the variations made by me as
referee, and to make the following observations.

I held the said enquiry on January 23, 24, 28, 29 and
30 last. Mr. Hunter Gray represented the Home Office,
Sir Thomas Ratcliffe-Ellis the Mining Association of
Great Britain, Mr. D. W. Dixon the Cleveland Mine-
owners’ Association, Mr. Mundahl (barrister-at-law) the
National Federation of Colliery Enginemen and Boiler-
men, Mr. Ashmall, the National Federation of Engine-
men, Stokers and other kindred Trade Societies. Several
other persons representing parties directly interested in
the proposed regulations were also present and took
part in the proceedings. Considerable interest was
evinced in the enquiry by all the parties affected.

Objections to the proposed draft order were made in
writing by the Mining Association of Great Britain, the
Cleveland Mineowners’ Association and others, all of
which I have carefully considered in addition to the
objections to, and proposed amendments of, the draft
order urged before me during the hearing.

The principal objections raised by the Mining Asso-
ciation of Great Britain were the following:—They
proposed that a new regulation should be added to the
draft order to the effect that “ where the coal wound at
any shaft does not exceed on an average 450 tons per
24 hours, a winding engine man may be employed for a
period not exceeding 12 hours in any one day.” They
also proposed that paragraph 6 of the draft order
should be altered in such a manner as to apply to all
pits “ where coal winding is carried on at a shaft during
one shift only.”

In support of these amendments Sir Thomas Ratcliffe-
Ellis placed before me striking statistics as to the very
small percentage of fatal accidents which have occurred
in the operation of lowering and raising the men in the
mines since the year 1901. Having regard to the
immense number of men lowered and raised during
each year by winding machinery, the number of such
accidents appears almost incredibly small and speaks
eloquently of the care and competence of the winding
enginemen. The numbei* of non-fatal accidents was
shown also to have been during the same years extremely
small. In addition to this, in a number of the accidents
which have actually occurred no blame has been
attributable to the winding engineman in charge of the
winding machinery at the time.

Having regard to the fact that during these years a
large proportion of winding enginemen have been in
charge of their engines for 12 hours a day, and even
longer, Sir Thomas Ratcliffe-Ellis argued that the
present hours of working are not dangerously pro-
tracted, and that to permit 12 hours a day in mines
where the output is less than 450 tons per day would
not be attended with danger, and should therefore be
allowed.

He further contended that if I was of opinion that a
longer working day than eight hours for winding
enginemen did not result in danger to the men raised
and lowered in the pit, and was not attended by any
serious inconvenience to the winding enginemen them-
selves, then, notwithstanding section 57 of the Coal
Mines Act, 1911, such longer working day should be
allowed at all events in the smaller mines, and in cases
where it now exists.

If I could have taken the same view of the Act of
Parliament that was contended for by Sir Thomas
Ratcliffe-Ellis, I might have acceded to his contention ;
but I was entirely unable to do so. In my opinion the
intention of the Act of Parliament is that after a date
to be prescribed the rule shall be that the hours of
winding enginemen shall be eight hours a day and no
more, and that the general regulations authorised to be
made were so authorised for the purpose of dealing with
exceptional cases where the strict application of the
statutory rule would be attended by great and unusual
inconvenience or hardship.

The number of mines in which the total output of
coal raised does not exceed 450 tons per day is some-
thing over 60 per cent, of the total number of mines in
Great Britain. If the suggestion of the Mining

Association of Great Britain to permit the winding
enginemen at these mines to work 12 hours a day
should be acceded to, the statutory restriction to eight
hours a day would become the exception and not the
rule.

The second objection of the Mining Association of
Great Britain, viz., to allow a 10 hours day for winding
enginemen in all cases “ where coal winding is carried
on at a shaft during one shift only ” instead of
“ where one shift only of persons descends and ascends
the shaft during the day, and mineral is not wound
before the descent or after the ascent of that shift,” as
provided in the draft order, would also have made a
great inroad upon what I regard as the statutory
principle of the eight hours day for winding enginemen.
At a very large proportion of mines mineral is wound
during one shift only.

For the same reasons that make me unable to allow
an exception in the case of mines with a daily output of
not more than 450 tons, I am unable to assent to the
proposed amendment to Clause 6 of the proposed order.

I also found myself unable to accept the proposed
amendments and additions to Clause 6 urged by
the Cleveland Mineowners’ Association, save in so far
as they may be effected by the regulations as now
settled.

Clause 2.—With regard to Clause 2 of the proposed
order which deals with a change of shift during the
course of the week’s work, or a change of shift necessi-
tated or rendered convenient by casual circumstances,
the balance of convenience appears to be to permit this
to be left largely in the hands of the employer and
workmen themselves. Various plans are at the present
time resorted to to effectuate the end, all of which may
be brought into harmony with the rule by altering it so
as allow a winding engineman to work a shift not
exceeding 16 hours in any one day in the week, or to
work on a system of eight-hour shifts, provided always
that an interval of not less than eight hours elapses
between the termination of his employment in one shift
and the commencement of his employment in the next,
and provided the period of employment does not on the
average of any three consecutive weeks exceed eight
hours a day.

Clause 3.—Considerable objection has been taken to
clause 3 of the proposed order both by the employers
and several of the men’s societies. The associations of
winding enginemen are somewhat close associations.
No great surplus of men trained to superintend the
winding engines exists. The men’s associations naturally
object to anything like an overplus of winders, and the
employers find in practice that if they train men in the
duties with the view of meeting future emergency in
their own works, there is a liability to lose them owing
to their being offered work elsewhere.

The evidence was contradictory as to the time required
for the purpose of training a winding engineman to take
the place of another incapacitated by sickness or other-
wise unavoidably prevented from doing his work. A
strong desire was expressed by those representing
several of the men’s associations that the order should
not compel the employer to fill up the place of a winding
engineman absent from illness, accident, or other
unavoidable cause too quickly. Great indulgence has
in the past been shown towards men so incapacitated,
by their employers and fellow workmen. Instances
were cited before me where the fellow workmen did the
incapacitated man’s work in addition to their own for
long periods of time, sometimes for many months, in
order that his employment might be open to him if he
was able to return to it, and in some cases the fellow
workmen gave the sick man or his family the additional
wages they so earned.

I am of opinion that the period allowed in the draft
Order for such an emergency, namely two weeks, is
not sufficient, and I have accordingly fixed the period at
six weeks.

Clause 4i.—With respect to Clause 4 of the draft
order, some evidence was given that at certain shafts
where winding is carried on by a succession of shifts,
the work during some period of the day is so much
heavier than the work during other periods, that it has
been customary to divide the winding shifts into one of
12 hours and two of six hours each. This, however,
occurs in very few cases. It was eventually agreed
that it would be better to leave such exceptional cases
to be dealt with, if at all, by special regulations under
section 87 of the Coal Mines Act, 1911, and not to
attempt to provide for them by general regulations.

Clause 5.—Objection was taken to Clause 5 of the
draft order both by the employers and many of the
workmen’s societies. This clause deals with the
changing of shifts at week-ends. The system at present
in force varies in different districts and in different
mines. It is often designed to secure in turn for the

winding enginemen what is known as the “ long week-
end off.”

This object is often gained by the men working shifts
of 16 hours both on Saturday and on Sunday, or by
working a shift of 16 hours followed by two shifts of
12 hours each, or by a system of eight-hour shifts.
Being of opinion that it is only in some such way that
the “ long week-end off ” can be secured for the engine-
men in turn, and having regard to the varied systems at
present in force which in most cases the men wish to
preserve, I have settled this clause allowing a wide
discretion but inserting a provision that an interval of
not less than eight hours shall always elapse between
the termination of an engineman’s employment in one
shift and the commencement of his employment in
the next.

Clause 6 (a).—Although, as before stated, I am unable
to accept the amendment to clause 6 of the proposed
order desired by the Mining Association of Great
Britain, evidence produced before me justified, in my
opinion, the contention that the period of 10 hours
employment allowed by clause 6 to a winding engine-
man in one-shift mines would not be found to be in
all cases sufficient. In many cases the deputies or
examiners have been in the habit of descending the
mine for the purposes of examination two full hours
before the shift of workers is lowered. After the
expiration of eight hours the shift of workers has to be
raised, and in such a case no time is allowed for this
operation. Though nearly all of these one-shift mines
are small, and not usually gassy, and though in many
cases the full period of two hours for the deputy or
examiner to get in advance of the men may not be
required, and though in some cases time might be saved
by placing the meeting station nearer the face of the
workings instead of at the bottom of the shaft, I am of
opinion that the best evidence of the time which may be
necessary for complete examination is the time which in
practice is often employed. I am entirely reluctant to
run any risk of hurrying or incommoding the proper
examination of the mine for the sake of a few minutes’
time, and I have arrived at the opinion that 10| hours
should be substituted for the period inserted in Clause 6
of the proposed order.

Clause 6 (b).—In a certain number of mines where two
shifts of workmen are employed—the one a mineral-
getting shift and the other a repairing shift—and where
mineral is not wound or got except during the hours of
the mineral-getting shift, it seems to me necessary that
some relaxation of the eight hours principle for winding
enginemen should be permitted. I only feel justified
in applying such relaxation to small mines, where the
expense of employing a third winding engineman would
be a considerable addition to the working expenses, and
where this can be avoided by permitting a small
extension of the eight hours principle. Though the
evidence satisfied me that the daily output of a mine is
a very rough and inefficient test of the work which may
have to be done by the winding enginemen, I fear no
other test is available in this case. I have accordingly
formulated a new clause (clause 6 (b)) permitting, under
the above conditions, a winding engineman to be
employed for a period not exceeding nine hours where
the total output of the mine does not exceed 100 tons of
mineral per working day.

Clause 6 (c).—Evidence was given before me that it
may be sometimes necessary for some person or persons
to descend the mine at times when no shift of men is at
work in the mine, and that these persons are in practice
lowered and raised by a man not otherwise employed to
work a winding engine. Such windings are quite casual
and intermittent, but require to be provided for. I have
framed to meet such a case a new clause (clause 6 (c))
permitting such a man to be employed for more than
eight hours but not for more than 12 in any day.

I have made several other minor alterations in the
wording of the draft order, some agreed to by all
parties, and others designed to render the meaning of
the clauses more clear, or to avoid possible evasion.

As the employers must have time to make necessary
arrangements to enable them to comply with the
regulations, I venture to suggest that a period of three
months should be fixed from the time the regulations
are promulgated before they come into operation.

Appendix.

(Matter shown in brackets struck out. Words in italic are
added.)

The following appendix gives the text of Draft
Regulations with the variations made by the Referee:—

In pursuance of sections 57 and 86 of the Coal Mines Act,
1911,1 hereby make the following regulations, and direct
that they shall apply to all mines to which that Act applies

These regulations shall come into force on

191[2.]3.

(1.) A winding engineman may be employed for more