Annual report on Northern Rhodesia / Colonial Office.

  • Colonial Office
Date:
[1959]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report on Northern Rhodesia / Colonial Office. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    to 131s. 6d. and from 2405. to 152s. 6d. for surface and underground workers respectively, for thirty shifts of eight hours. Monthly paid Africans earned salaries, excluding the metal bonus, up to 151s. 6d. for surface workers, and 9105. for underground workers. In addition to the above rates, under the mining companies’ present bonus scheme, applicable to Africans and Europeans, a rate of 36 per cent was declared for the year ended 30th June, 1959, and credited to employees in the following manner: (a) 5 per cent of basic pay as a Christmas bonus, (b) 10 per cent of basic pay as a leave bonus, (c) 21 per cent of basic pay as a cash bonus, provided, however, that the whole or any portion of this cash bonus could, at the option of the employee, be credited to a savings fund. The basic rate for European daily paid employees, including cost-of- living allowance, but excluding the copper bonus, varied from 665. 5d. to 895. 6d. per shift for underground workers and from 655. 4d. to 855. Id. per shift for surface workers. Underground rock breakers were paid on a contract basis and received higher remuneration. With regard to other industries, wages for African farm workers averaged 825. 9d. per month and in industries other than mining, railways and Government services, the average wage for all workers was 1345. 1 \d. per month. Wages for clerks averaged 219s. 11 d. per month and in other skilled occupations, workers received an average of 2265. 11 d. per month. All wages are based on a month of twenty-six working days inclusive of rations; the employer provides free housing which may be assessed at an additional 205. to 715. 6d. per month. The standard working week was forty-eight in industry, and forty-five for manual workers in Government service. Overtime was usually paid at the rate of time-and-a-half, double time for Sundays and holidays. Leave varied from twelve to eighteen working days per annum. INDUSTRIAL DISPUTES During the year there were in all forty-six disputes and strikes, twenty- three of which involved stoppages of work and caused a loss of 2,185 man-days in all. There were twelve disputes in the mining industry, ten disputes in the construction and allied trades and the remaining twenty- four were miscellaneous disputes, all of which were of a minor nature. Eleven disputes were settled by formal conciliation or arbitration, ten by direct negotiation, and of the remaining twenty-five disputes eight were settled by Labour Officers, using informal conciliation, and seventeen as a result of direct intervention and advice. INDUSTRIAL TRAINING A number of Government departments provided courses of special training to suit their particular needs; these included courses for hospital orderlies.
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