3,000 employees, 800 men and 2,200 females and of the 3,000, 2,700 are pro- duction workers. All the production is sold by the company directly through its own sales distribution and the factory we visited was responsible for the programme of sales and production of the entire group.
The total sales of the company are approximately 30 million dollars per year and the production at the factory we visited was 130 metric tons of yarn per month, 400,000 dozen seamless hose per month and 60,000 dozen tights per month, also 60 metric tons of jersey fabric. The company, at one of its other factories, produces a small amount of lace and some foundation garments.
The majority of the knitting machinery in use in the factory was of Japanese origin. There were a few imported machines. The company operated 1,400 seamless hose machines, mostly four feed, making the seamless hose and tights. The seamless hose knitting plant is operated on the knitter/fixer system and we were told that one knitter and one fixer would operate 150/180 machines but when we walked round the plant we saw 13 sets of 100 machines, each set, and there were 21 girls and 12 men operating these 1,300 machines, which was somewhat different to the facts we had been given earlier. The girls are only allowed to work two day shifts and the third, or night shift, is operated by male labour and for this shift the men receive a premium payment of 50% of the female rate.
The hose are transferred from the knitting room after random inspection by an inspector or spot checker, and the hose are then processed through toe closing since the company has no toe closing knitting machines in operation at the present time.
The operatives are paid a fixed rate, depending on age and experience, there being no incentive method of payment in the company and the factory works six days per week. Since a man is employed as a fixer he is paid more than a girl knitter but in theory, if a man and a girl are both knitting, of the same age and experience, they receive the same wage. For example, a male fixer, 25 years of age now, with little experience with the company, would earn about 40,000 Yen per month but had he started with the company at 18 years of age, he would receive about 50,000 Yen per month; the highest paid fixer would receive approximately 70,000 Yen per month and in addition to this, he would receive a bonus, that is 16 months' pay for 12 months employment. The girls' average wage about 19 years of age (which was the average age of the female operatives) was 30,000 Yen per month. This amount is paid to all the girls of the same age and experience, irrespective of the operation they are doing in the factory. The girls also receive a bonus of 16 months' pay for 12 months work.
The Jersey Fabric knitters, who were girls, were paid the same wage as the seamless hose knitters.
The company has a Full Fashioned Outerwear department making mostly sports shirts and ladies jumpers and cardigans. They have girl knitters operating Bentley Cotton 16 at once machines. The girl knitters, in addition to knitting, are responsible for glass eye examining of all work. The bar loading for these machines was undertaken in other parts of the factory and the girl knitters were responsible for transferring the welts during the knitting cycle. Collars and
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