Sale and delivery of milk
Three separate Milk Distributive Trade Boards were created in 1920 to cover (1) England and Wales, (2) Ireland, and (3) Scotland. In 1922 the Irish Board was transferred to the control of the Irish government and a separate Milk Distributive Trade Board was created for Northern Ireland.
The trade board papers in the Trades Union Congress archive include 9 files relating to the Milk Distributive Trade BoardsLink opens in a new window covering Scotland, England and Wales. 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 material relating to the Milk Distributive Trade BoardsLink opens in a new window.
Illustration: Horse-drawn cart of Anfield Farm Dairy, containing milk churns, early 20th century - photograph from private collection reproduced with permission.
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 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 application of the Board to individual businesses, 1921Link opens in a new window
Copies of letters from J.G. Jenking [Jenkin?], Falmouth Dairy, in which he described the work of his shops and asked whether his staff would come under the Trade Board regulations. Cases relating to a Farmers' Co-operative Society and another retailer of milk are also mentioned.
The summary lists some of the jobs which were and were not covered by the Trade Board minimum wage. Copies of correspondence about individual cases are included after the summary, including letters from Florence Mary MacdonaldLink opens in a new window, a dairymaid at Clandon Park, Guildford, about her working hours and wages, and letters from Henry JenkinsLink opens in a new window, dairyman of Shenley Church End, Buckinghamshire, about his small business.
Opinions on the scope of the Trade Board, 1922Link opens in a new window
Information about different types of employment connected with the dairy industry, from cutting chaff for horses to shop work.
Queries about the application of the Board to individual businesses, 1922Link opens in a new window
Includes information about the work of individual firms, including that of Mrs Murray, Leyton, East London.
The summary lists some of the jobs which were and were not covered by the Trade Board minimum wage.
Ministry of Labour circular which set out who should be entitled to the minimum wage.
Questions of scope and interpretation, 1925Link opens in a new window
Official opinions given on three cases - a worker "responsible for the care of three horses", an assistant foreman, and three teenage girls who assisted the farmer on a milk round.
Revised definition of the trade: amended schedule, 1927Link opens in a new window
Outline of the types of work included and excluded from the scope of the Trade Board.
Revised definition of the trade: explanatory memorandum, 1927Link opens in a new window
"Summary statement of the administrative and legal difficulties which have arisen from the wording of the old Order, and also as to the policy governing the new draft Definition".
General wages and working conditions:
Minimum rates of wages set for male and female workers:
Scotland, 1920 (proposed rate)Link opens in a new window
England and Wales, 1920Link opens in a new window
Scotland, 1922Link opens in a new window
England and Wales, 1922Link opens in a new window
Proposed wage rates for the dairy trade, 1922Link opens in a new window
Proposed wage scales for different types of dairy workers. It was sent to the Trade Boards Advisory Committee by the Transport and General Workers' Union.
Notice to employers about time and wages records, 1926Link opens in a new window
Ministry of Labour circular setting out the types of employment records to be kept for milk roundsmen.
Notes relating to the evidence submitted by Archie Henderson, Transport and General Workers' Union, on the 48 hour working week. He outlines reasons given by employers for opposing a reduction in working hours to 48 a week and comments on the costs of milk distribution.
Objections to rates of pay:
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.
Summary of 17 objections to the proposed minimum rates in Scotland, 1921Link opens in a new window
Objections included complaints that the wage rate was too high and that attempts to reduce the hours in a working week to 48 (rather than 54 or 56) would damage businesses.
12 objections to proposed minimum rates in Scotland, 1921Link opens in a new window
Copies of letters from employers and regional associations objecting to the proposed wage rates and 48 hour working week.
Objections to proposed reduction in minimum rates in Scotland, 1922Link opens in a new window
Copies of one objection that the wages are too high (A. Corrie, employer in Auchengool Rerrick), and 36 objections that wages were too low (39 unnamed Glasgow workers and the manager of Shettleston Co-operative Society Ltd.).
The writers, Adam and A.J. Corrie, included summary accounts relating to milk yield from the previous six months with their letter of objection, and stated that they were now feeding the milk to their pigs rather than selling it ("It seems a pity to do that when poor people in the cities could do with cheap milk, which they would get, if it wasn't for the profiteering of the middlemen").
Copies of letters from trade union branches and individual workers, including one written by four named war veterans at Ashbourne ("it is almost starvation on the wages and the short time we make; without any further reduction").
Summary of objections to proposed revision of minimum wage rates, 1927Link opens in a new window
Summaries of objections from Windsor Dairy of Willesden Green, Mountain Ash and District Dairyman’s Association, and the National Union of Distributive and Allied Workers in Manchester and Bradford.
Effects of Trade Board legislation:
Letter of complaint "to the editor of The Times", 1921Link opens in a new window
Newspaper cutting of a letter sent to the press by Lord Bledisloe, former President of the British Dairy Farmers’ Association. He complained that higher wages for dairy workers resulted in London customers paying higher prices for milk, resulting in inflation, industrial stagnation and unemployment.
Position of dairy farmers in rural areas, 1925Link opens in a new window
Copy correspondence to and from the Food Council. The letters refer to the negative effects of Trade Board legislation on farmers who bottled and sold their own milk. The anonymous author of a letter to the Food Council suggested that the minimum wage favoured town over country and benefited middlemen rather than farmers.
Information about 7 cases reported by Trade Board inspectors in England and Wales, including employers' complaints about the rates of wages payable to young roundsmen and to country workers.
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.
Applications for permits of exemption, 1921-1927Link opens in a new window
The Milk Distribution 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 "diminutive stature", age, "infantile paralysis" (polio), epilepsy, heart disease, "nervous debility", gun shot wounds, loss of limbs and being "mentally deficient"
A partial index to these documentsLink opens in a new window is available.
Inspection and enforcement:
Protest about employers' evasion of the Trade Board regulations, 1921Link opens in a new window
Letter from W.T. Scott, National Union of Distributive of Allied Workers, to J.J. Mallon, Trade Boards Advisory Council. Scott refers to the lack of prosecutions for breaking the law, and mentions cases where workers were forced to sign false timesheets (or be sacked) and where lower wages were paid.
Letter about proposed prosecution of employer, 1921Link opens in a new window
Includes brief information about the case of Frank C. Herbert, aged 20, employed by Mr. Woodall, dairyman of Bishopsworth, near Bristol.
Report on inspection of a firm in Bristol, 1922Link opens in a new window
The inspector concluded that complaints made against the company by two employees were unfounded.
Summary reports on inspection and enforcement (England and Wales):
Inspection and enforcement for year ending 8 November 1921Link opens in a new window
Inspection and enforcement in 1924Link opens in a new window
Inspection and enforcement in 1925Link opens in a new window
Inspection and enforcement between January-June 1926Link opens in a new window
Short reports of legal proceedings against individual employers:
Ebenezer R. Morris, London, 1922Link opens in a new window
Tollesby Farm Dairy, Middlesbrough, 1925Link opens in a new window
Express Dairy Company Ltd, Tavistock Place, London, 1926Link opens in a new window
Glanwydden Dairy, Llandudno, 1926Link opens in a new window
United Dairies (London) Ltd., Chelsea, 1926Link opens in a new window
Walker & Wickens, Leicester, 1926Link opens in a new window
Grays Inn Dairy, London, 1927Link opens in a new window
Long & Pocock Ltd., Ealing Common, 1927Link opens in a new window
Prince's Dairies Ltd., Wallasey, 1927Link opens in a new window
United Dairies (London) Ltd., Fulham, 1927Link opens in a new window