CO-PARTNERSHIP.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 788, 11 April 1910, Page 8

CO-PARTNERSHIP.

A SUCCESSFUL VENTURE. The refusal of the majority of Sβ Christopher Furnees's shipbuilding employfeees to continue the Hartlepool copartnership scheme (which recently m. derwent a financially successful twelve months' trial) has drawn fresh atteib-' tion to oc-partnery and profit-sharing. Among the firms which, have started and flourished.. on "profit-sharing ,, , schemes none have achieved better resnlts than Messrs. J. T: and J. Tajlor (Limited), at Batley, writes the "Scotsman:" . . The story of the "Batley profit-shar-ing scheme"—as the scheme is now. described by economic text-books—is full of interest; while its results are gratifying to that rapidly increasing section of the community which sees in scien-tifically-planned schemes of co-partner-ship a solution of many of our preeeni industrial difficulties. The Taylor Family. • J The L ? aylor f ? mil 7 ha* pWed a considerable part in the expansion of the woollen industry. Four generations of the family have been woollen manufacturers, the. present firm being founded ? i °m by Me ßsrs, John Thomas and Joshua Taylor. In 1892 Mr. T. C. Tay<tor, - now the-liberal member for the Radcliffe-cum-Farnworth Division, paid out ins fellow partners and became'tha sole'proprietor of the business, his action- being dictated by a keeifdesire to conduct the mills on the profitsharinz basis. ■' :

The experiment had a modest berin- ' ning, and from 1892 tin 1895 only managers, heads of departments, and foremen were given a share of profits. At the annual gathering of employers and work-people in 1896 ,Mr. _ Taylor announced that ; with the object of extending the benefits of profit-sharing to the s rank and file, the business was at once to be transformed into a private limited liability company. In 1896 Mr.' Taylor put his schemo into operation by pre- - senting to each of the work-people,-who had earned £1 a week or more in the year. 1895, two fully paid £I'. shares, i while to those whose wages had beea loss than £1 a week a £1 share was in each case allotted. Bonus on Wages. The gift of shares cost Mr. Tajlor about £1000, for the work-people then numbered about 600, buj;. to-day ■ they . number.over 1300, a fact which clearly indicates that profit-sharing has , not stunted the firm.ls activities or growth. ■ So far as labour is concerned, the scheme means that any percentage of profit received by capital beyond 4} per cent., is likewise declared part of the year's, total wages, and- every worker ■ who has beeu employed during the whole ' ' of the year is credited with bonus at that rate on his or her wages .for the • "year. ... . . , . .

The bonus takes the form-of fully-, paid shares and not of cash. At last year's meeting an alteration in the Eoheme was announced, and henceforward the initial rate of capital .will be 5 per cent., while - double bonus will in future be paid to all workers who have been five years with the firm and hold shares, equal in'-Value to half a year's wages.-..'; ■'■'.. ■ ~ ■;', , ; Workers' Share, £61,000. The scheme'has; in its working, been attended by unqualified success. At" the end of-the first year—l9o6—a dividend of 7} per cent, was paid as capital, and: a 3 per cent, bonuses wages in the shape of shares,was allocated to the work-people; for 1597 and 1898—a, period of trade depression'in the. West ..Riding—no.bonus was paid; in 1899,,0n iithe. 7 ] other.,hand, .'a' prosperous, year bo far as.the firm was concerned, the workpeople received s.per cent', on wages, in. the shape of neiy fully-paid shares .in -the company, and 9£ per cent, dividend on the shares already held." By the end of 1908 the profit-sharing scheme had been in operation fourteen years, and through it £44,000 had been allotted to the workera out of the profits . of the firm, while dividends, amounting to over £17,000 had been paid upon the shares thus allotted. The workers 3 share during those years ; had '■ thus amounted to £61,000.