The Modern Factory; Safety, Sanitation and Welfare (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1914 edition. Excerpt: ...of the workman necessarily decreases, for which a less amount of bonus is paid, the workman receiving only his hourly pay for doing the work. If the work is performed in less than the standard time allowed, more than twenty per cent bonus is paid for the operation, depending on the reduction made in the time." This bonus system of the Sante Fe" was part of an efficiency plan which was installed in the works, operated for two years and then discontinued. The bonus system aims at a large output. By its critics it is stated to be simply a method of speeding up the worker. There is no limit placed on the standard time, which can easily be shortened as the workers are speeded up to maximum production. Under the bonus system a worker might accomplish his job using only a few minutes more than the standard time; but in this case he would receive no bonus, or, as Mr. Jacobs subtly says "a less amount of bonus, namely, only his hourly rate," which he would obtain whether he hustled for the bonus or not. Organized workers are opposed to the bonus system, whether in their own or other trades. Warren S. Stone, President of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, states that his organization is opposed to the bonus system all along the line. His reasons are primarily the necessity for careful workmanship in the building of locomotives and locomotive machinery. The bonus system with its emphasis on speed and output tends to the scamping of work and therefore results in faults or defects in machinery. Two hundred and ten members of the Brotherhood were killed in 1910 and many wrecks have resulted from invisible defects. "We don't want piece-work and we don't want the bonus system with its attendant incentive for some man to...