Women and War Work Part 9

(f) _The provision of seats._--She should study working conditions so as to be able to bring to the notice of the Management the necessity for the provision of seats where these are possible.

II. CANTEEN.

Unless the Factory is a small one it would hardly be possible for the Welfare Supervisor to manage the canteen. The Management will probably prefer to entrust the matter to an expert who should satisfy the Management in consultation with the Welfare Supervisor on the following matters:--

(1) That the Canteen provides all the necessary facilities for the women workers; that is to say, suitable food, rapidly and punctually served.

(2) That Canteen facilities are provided when necessary for the women before they begin work so that no one need start work without having taken food.

(3) That the Canteen is as restful and as comfortable as possible so that it serves a double purpose of providing rest as well as food.

III. SUPERVISION OF AMBULANCE RESTROOM AND FIRST AID.

While not responsible for actually attending to accidents, except in small Factories, the Welfare Supervisor should work in close touch with the Factory Doctor and Nurses. She should, however, be responsible for the following matters:--

(1) She should help in the selection of the Nurses, who should be recognised as belonging to the Welfare staff.

(2) While not interfering with the Nurses in the professional discharge of their duties, she should see that their work is carried out promptly and that the workers are not kept waiting long before they receive attention.

(3) She should supervise the keeping of all records of accident and illness in the Ambulance Room.

(4) She should keep in touch with all cases of serious accident or illness.

It would further be useful if she were allowed to be kept in touch with the Compensation Department inside the Factory with a view to advising on any cases of hardship that may arise.

IV. SUPERVISION OF CLOAK-ROOMS AND SANITARY CONVENIENCES.

The Welfare Supervisor should be held responsible for the following matters:--

(1) General cleanliness.

(2) Prevention of Loitering.

(3) Prevention of Pilfering.

The Management will decide what staff is necessary to a.s.sist her, and it should be her duty to report to the Management on these matters.

V. PROVISION OF OVERALLS.

The Welfare Supervisor should have the duty of supervising the Protective Clothing supplied to the women for their work.

EXTRAMURAL WELFARE.

The Welfare Supervisor should keep in touch with all outside agencies responsible for:--

(1) Housing.

(2) Transit facilities.

(3) Sickness and Maternity cases.

(4) Recreation.

(5) Day Nurseries.

In communicating with any of these agencies it will no doubt be preferable that she should do so through the Management.

III. RECORDS.

_A_. The Welfare Supervisor should for the purpose of her work have some personal records of every woman employee. If a card-index system is adopted, a sample card suggesting the necessary particulars which it is desirable should be kept by Welfare Supervisors is supplied to employers on request.

_B_. The Welfare Supervisor should have some way of observing the health in relation to the efficiency of the workers, and if the Management approved this could be done:

(a) By allowing her to keep in touch with the Wages Department. She could then watch the rise and fall of wages earned by individual employees from the point of view that a steady fall in earnings may be the first indication of an impending breakdown in health.

(b) By allowing her to keep in touch with the Time Office she should be able to obtain records of all reasons for lost time.

From such records information can be obtained of sickness, inadequate transit and urgent domestic duties, which might otherwise not be discovered. Here again, if a card-index system is adopted a sample card for this purpose can be obtained from the Welfare and Health Section on request.

(c) By keeping records of all cases of accident and sickness occurring in the Factory. Sample Ambulance Books and Accident Record Cards can also be obtained from the Welfare and Health Section.

"THE WOMEN'S LAND ARMY"

"If it were not for the women, agriculture would be at an absolute standstill on many farms in England and Wales today."

--_President of the Board of Agriculture._

CHAPTER VIII

"THE WOMEN'S LAND ARMY"

The Land Army of Women, which now numbers over 258,300 whole and part-time workers, has done splendid work. For some years before the war women had been very little used on the land in certain parts of England and Wales. In Scotland and in some of the English counties there had always been, and still were, quite fair numbers of women on the land.

Within eighteen months of the outbreak of war, about 300,000 agricultural laborers had enlisted and the work had been carried on with difficulty by the farmer in the first year of the war. The farmer secured all the labor he could, old men returned to help, and the army released skilled men temporarily, from training, to help. Soldiers were used in groups for seasonal work, the farmer paying a good rate for them. Groups of women were also organized for seasonal work by various voluntary organizations, two of these being the Land Council and the Women's National Land Service Corps. The Women's Farm and Garden Union also did good work. The Land Service Corps made one of its most important objects the organization of village women into working gangs under leaders. One interesting piece of work undertaken by the Corps last year was finding a large number of women for flax-pulling in Somerset. This the Flax-Growers' a.s.sociation asked them to do as sufficient local labor could not be raised. The War Agricultural Committee made all the local arrangements. This was pioneer work of great value and importance as flax is essential in the making of aeroplane wings.