ABSTRACT
The recognition of the science of costing as one of the most important aids to efficient management, and the increasing weight of executive responsibility which falls to the Cost Accountant, mean that labour problems have to be viewed by him from new angles. It is the merest platitude to remark that labour is an important component of cost and, therefore, that the bases of its remuneration and the methods by which its expense can be accurately booked or apportioned to jobs or to processes form an inalienable part of the normal concerns of the Cost Accountant. The Cost Accountant must have a sound knowledge of labour organisation, of the methods of labour negotiation and, above all, be possessed of a shrewd insight into human psychology. The satisfactory introduction of changes can seldom be effected without patient negotiation involving the overcoming of opposition by persuasion, by a concessive and tolerant spirit, and by opportune and persistent advance towards a predetermined goal.
