Confectionery and food preserving workers
The Sugar Confectionery and Food Preserving Trade Board covered workers who produced a range of food products, including chocolate, sweets, preserves such as jam and marmalade, pickles and relishes, and meat and fish pastes. Two separate Trade Boards for the industry were created in 1914: the Sugar Confectionery and Food Preserving Trade Board for Great Britain (established on 6 February 1914) and the Sugar Confectionery and Food Preserving Trade Board for Ireland (established on 8 May 1914 and transferred to the control of the Irish government in 1922). A separate Trade Board for Northern Ireland was created in 1924.
The trade board papers in the Trades Union Congress archive include 6 files relating to the Sugar Confectionery and Food Preserving Trade BoardsLink opens in a new window between 1914-1923. 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 Sugar Confectionery and Food Preserving Trade BoardsLink opens in a new window.
Illustration: Fruit picking in the Co-operative Wholesale Society's Middleton preserve works, c.1913. Image included in 'The story of the C.W.S. The jubilee history of the Co-operative Wholesale Society Ltd., 1863-1913'Link opens in a new window by Percy Redfern (Co-operative Wholesale Society Ltd., 1913)
Wages and working conditions:
Minimum rates fixed for the Sugar Confectionery and Food Preserving Trade (Great Britain):
Female workers, 1915Link opens in a new window
Male workers, 1915Link opens in a new window
All workers, 1920Link opens in a new window
All workers, 1922Link opens in a new window
Minimum rates fixed for the Sugar Confectionery and Food Preserving Trade (Ireland):
Male workers, 1915Link opens in a new window
All workers, 1918Link opens in a new window
All workers, 1920Link opens in a new window
Includes table of rates of wages in different branches of the trade.
It includes information about the "general state of the country", "condition of trade" and the "workers' case" at a time of wartime inflation.
Obligatory order, 1917Link opens in a new window
Ministry of Labour notice setting out the penalties for non-payment of the minimum wages in Ireland.
Includes information about rates of wages paid in Dublin and Cork (including at Crosse & Blackwell, Cork, and Williams & Woods, Dublin).
The Irish Confectionery Trade Board rate, 1919Link opens in a new window
Copy letter from J.J. Mallon to Susan Lawrence regarding negotiations over the Trade Board rate. It includes a reference to a strike of 600 people in Dublin "because of the insufficiency of the rate". Another note on negotiations over pay and conditions is also availableLink opens in a new window.
Resolution calling for higher rates of wages, 1920Link opens in a new window
The resolution was sent from Bournville Works Women's Council, Cadbury Bros. Ltd., to J.J. Mallon.
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
Includes copy correspondence relating to "nut foods" (from fruit caramels to "nut gravy"), confectionery packers, and girls who picked out "foreign substances" from bags of cocoa beans. A list of rulings between Aug-Oct 1921 on operations which came within the scope of the Trade Board (including jelly products and onion pickling) is also included.
The summary lists some of the jobs which were and were not covered by the Trade Board minimum wage, including production of "nut foods", packaging of confectionery, pickles and toffee, and "picking out foreign substances".
The summary lists some of the jobs which were and were not covered by the Trade Board minimum wage, including production of marshmallows, brining peel and pouring out jam.
Memorandum on proposed revision of scope of the Trade Board, 1922Link opens in a new window
It includes information about the types of food that should come within the scope of the Board. These included chocolate and other types of confectionery, jams and other preserves, pickles and relishes, powders and flours (e.g. baking, custard and curry powder), and meat and fish pastes.
The work of the unnamed company included making crackers, Christmas stockings, artificial flowers and gum paste cake ornaments.
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 proposed hours of work, 1919Link opens in a new window
Copy correspondence relating to the payment of overtime under Trade Board regulations, sent from representatives of Dooblin, Ogilvie & Co. Ltd. of Cork and Mitchell's (Dublin) Ltd.
Objection to level of proposed minimum rate of wages, 1920Link opens in a new window
Copy of letter from Chapmans Ltd., Portadown. The author argued that scales of wages in other local industries were lower than the Trade Board rates and that the company was unable to compete with the large English combines.
Objections to proposed reduction in minimum rate of wages, 1921Link opens in a new window
Copies of letters of objection to reduced wages, including from representatives of Bristol branches of the Dock, Wharf, Riverside and General Workers' Union; the Women Workers' section of the National Union of General Workers; members of the National Union of Distributive and Allied Workers employed by the Scottish Co-operative Wholesale Society in Shieldhall, Glasgow; members of the Women's section of the Bournville branch of the Workers' Union employed by Cadbury Bros. Ltd.; and employees of an unnamed jam manufacturers in Whitchurch, Hampshire, and a sugar confectionery works in Dewsbury. Two letters calling for heavier reductions in wages are also included from representatives of H.T. Turnbull Ltd. and W.M. Masefield & Co. Ltd.
Analysis of 200 objections submitted to the Trade Board. Eight letters of objection are reproduced in full - two argue that wages are still too high (William Masefield & Co. Ltd., Liverpool, and C.F. Stoneman & Co., Gateshead) and six argue that wages are too low (five Bristol branches of the Transport and General Workers' Union and representatives of 100 Bristol vinegar and pickle 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.
The Sugar Confectionery and Food Preserving 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 "mental deficiency", heart disease, "old age", "partial paralysis", "defective sight", "deafness", "chronic rheumatism", "nervous debility", and loss of limbs.
An index to these documentsLink opens in a new window is available.
Inspection and enforcement:
Tip off about two companies failing to pay the minimum rates of wage, 1917Link opens in a new window
Copy of letter from 'MGB' (Margaret Bondfield) to J.J. Mallon, passing on information about Roberts [Robertson] Chelsea Toffee Factory, Brentford, and Boulton & Knowles.
Report of inspection and enforcement for the year ending 31 December 1922Link opens in a new window
Summary report containing information about inspections of firms and irregularities identified over the course of the assessment period.