BONUS VS GOOD WAGES IN BOMBAY

Rv I I VOL XXIV No 14 By International Labor News Service Washington D CTextile work ers in the great textile mill district of Bombay India have discovered that a bonus is a very poor substitute for good wages. The Bombay workers found that the bonus was entirely dependent on whether the mill owners thought pro fits justified the extra payments and that when profits fell off the employ ers had no scruples about omitting the bonus. But this was not the only dis covery made by the workers. When they struck in protest against the withdrawal of the bonus they were told by a government commission that they had no enforceable claim against the mill owners Bonus Omitted in 1923 The World war and the greatly in creased cost of living which followed it were responsible for the digging of the bonus pitfall in which the workers were caught.

In the years following 1917 there were several strikes in the Bombay mills for in creased wages. In lieu of higher pay the workers accepted bonuses of vary ing amounts which were paid until 1923 In July of last year the mill owners notified the workers that they could not.