Planned transfer of labour; With special reference to the coal industry

Abstract

The thesis seeks to explore the possibility of using planned transfer of labour to facilitate economic change and discusses the merits of this policy compared with Distribution of Industry policy. This is done by examining the National Coal Board's transfer scheme, by which over nine thousand miners were transferred between coal fields in the years 1954 - 56, with a special study being made of Central Scotland, West Durham and North Staffordshire. Resistance to transfer is shown to have been caused more by the effects of Government social policies, especially in the field of housing than by the organised opposition of community leaders. Individual resistances to migration are also discussed. The social consequences of the transfer of labour were much less than had been anticipated. The standards of living of those left behind did not fall, community life was not disrupted to any significant degree and few people were deprived of normal social satisfactions. No social capital was wasted. Over a half of the miners transferred into North Staffordshire failed to settle there. The reasons for this lay especially in the fact that wages were not up to expectations, but also in the different organisation of work, the system of contracting and working conditions. The social problems of transfer were, surprisingly, greater at the receiving end. There were numerous difficulties in the location of the estates and in the provision of amenities and social services. There were also problems of social adjustment. Despite the difficulties experienced in this particular scheme of transfer the economic rewards were immense and similar rewards could be expected from such a policy applied to other industries. Governmental policy should therefore not only facilitate such movement; it should also cease to obstruct it.