ABSTRACT
Trade unions in war-related industries had agreed that women could operate machinery, semi-skilled workers could carry out operations normally undertaken by skilled mechanics and that the work of skilled men could be subdivided and simplified. The Treasury Agreement – which the government, employers and trade unions had all signed – stated that in order to effect a restoration of pre-war conditions of employment at the end of the war, a record of departures from customary procedures must be kept. By 1913 many private firms and associations had recognised trade unions. Wages varied according to output produced, and the relationship between wage and output was linear. Quite simply, the basis of the system was 'no work, no pay'. Increases in real wages per man-year were more pronounced in both wartime phases than in the peacetime phase, but even these gains were slight in comparison with the gains made after 1951.
