Feather and artificial flower workers
The Ostrich and Fancy Feather and Artificial Flower Trade Board regulated the wages of workers who prepared feathers and made artificial flowers for hats and other decorative items. The Trade Board was established on 3 February 1921 and was converted into a Wages Council under the Wages Councils Act of 1945. The Ostrich and Fancy Feather and Artificial Flower Wages Council was still in existence in 1988.
The trade board papers in the Trades Union Congress archive include 4 files relating to the Ostrich and Fancy Feather and Artificial Flower Trade BoardLink opens in a new window between 1921-1928. As part of the Modern Records Centre's 'Sweated trades' digitisation project, we have made a selection of these documents available online, including the items highlighted below. It is also possible to browse all of the digitised materialLink opens in a new window relating to this Trade Board.
Illustration: confirmation wreath maker, photograph included in 'Sweated Industries', handbook of the Daily News exhibitionLink opens in a new window, 1906.
Wages and working conditions:
Minimum rates of wages fixed for male and female workers. 1921Link opens in a new window
Summary of rates set by the Ostrich and Fancy Feather and Artificial Flower Trade Board.
Proposal to vary minimum rates of wages for female workers, 1922Link opens in a new window
Summary of rates proposed by the Ostrich and Fancy Feather and Artificial Flower Trade Board.
Proposal to vary minimum rates of wages for male workers, 1922Link opens in a new window
Summary of rates proposed by the Ostrich and Fancy Feather and Artificial Flower Trade Board.
Scope of the Trade Board:
Not all workers in Trade Board regulated industries were eligible for the minimum wage, employees who were regarded as doing peripheral jobs (such as messenger, delivery driver, etc.) could be excluded. In some cases the Trade Board was required to rule on 'questions of scope' - whether the work of certain employees came within the scope of the Board (and the minimum wage). Submissions to the Board on questions of scope can include information about manufacturing processes and types of work done by individual employees.
Queries about the scope of the Trade Board, 1921Link opens in a new window
Information about three cases: report of interview with Mr Ray of the London artificial flower company Perry & Ray about the work of an 18 year old female packer; letter from J. Norman of Tottenham, stoker and raffia dyer employed by Palmyra Manufacturing Co., Stoke Newington; and letter from Charles Kirk, taxidermist of Glasgow.
Query about the scope of the Trade Board, 1922Link opens in a new window
Includes information about the work of feather dyers' assistants.
The summary lists some of the jobs which were and were not covered by the Trade Board minimum wage, including raffia dyeing, making silk flowers and metal leaves, mounting flowers, berries and grasses, and painting quills.
Objections:
Each change to the recommended minimum wage was publicised by the issuing of printed notices by the Trade Board. Individuals and organisations then had a set period of time during which they could submit formal written objections to the proposed changes. Inevitably, when wage rates increased most objections were sent in by employers; when rates were reduced most objections were sent by trade unions or workers.
Objections to minimum rates of wages, 1921Link opens in a new window
Includes objections from London employers W. Stramp (a member of the London Flower Manufacturers Association), P.W. Cook & Son (including reference to workers Mrs Jones and Mrs Howard), the Ostrich and Fancy Feather Trade Association, R. Schrameck and D. Cobb; and from G. Stroud of Grosvenor Co., Clacton on Sea ("I suggest that I should be exempt from these new conditions" due to being a family firm in a seaside town).
Objections to minimum rates of wages, 1922Link opens in a new window
Includes objections from W.E. Jancey of the Tailors' and Garment Workers' Trade Union ("protest against any further reductions" due to cost of living), and Alfred E. Charles, employer of London EC2 (calling for 25% reduction in wages due to foreign competition and lower wages for apprentices and teenage girls).
Objection to reduction in minimum rate of wages, 1923Link opens in a new window
Copy of a letter from V.D. Walsh of Newington Green and four other unnamed workers ("the wages at present are hardly enough to live on").
Exempted workers:
Trade Boards could issue permits of exemption which allowed employers to pay less than the minimum wage. Permits were given to workers who were regarded as having a physical or psychological disability which affected their work. Applications (usually submitted without the employees' names) include short medical profiles of the individuals.
The Ostrich and Fancy Feather and Artificial Flower Trade Board papers include a series of applications for permits of exemption and statements of permits granted. These include cases relating to workers who were described as having a range of physical and psychological symptoms, including "infantilism", "deformity", "advanced age", "infantile paralysis" (polio), eye injuries, "spinal curvature", "epileptic", being "mentally defective", "deafness" and "arrested development".
Circulars relating to a contested permit case, 1922Link opens in a new window
The case related to a 31 year old woman who was "small of stature" and employed by Mr Machin, "an employer of the bullying kind". "The feeling is that the girl is doing as much work as the other workers, and is receiving less money for it because of her deformity which it is stated does not interfere with her work". The documents include minutes of an interview with the worker's mother and a copy of a letter sent by the Mayor of Shoreditch to Margaret Bondfield.
An index to these documentsLink opens in a new window is available.
State of trade:
Competition from cheaper German imports, 1924Link opens in a new window
Copy correspondence between the Trade Board and the London Flower Manufacturers' Association about the "importation of foreign artificial flowers". The Secretary of the Association, A.J. Turvey, calls for German manufacturers to either pay higher wages or for imports to be taxed to protect the British industry from its current "hopeless outlook".
Inspection and enforcement:
Brief summaries of the work of the Trade Board inspectors:
Report on inspection and enforcement for 1924Link opens in a new window
Report on inspection and enforcement between Jan-Jun 1927Link opens in a new window
Short reports of legal proceedings against individual employers:
Albert Wiseburgh, Islington Green, 1925Link opens in a new window