Working hours in the Swedish tobacco industry

The wage level and gender composition of the workforce are two aspects to consider in this regard. Hours-reductions are more likely where there is a certain margin to the subsistence level, otherwise workers will not be able to survive if hours are reduced. Hours-reductions are also more likely where a huge share of the workers is women, particularly in historical settings where women’s incomes were seen as complementing the male breadwinner’s. Workers incomes are not only related to wages and working times, but also to the existence of unemployment insurances. The design of such schemes may be of great importance for workers’ attitudes towards reducing working hours temporarily.

An insurance where part-time unemployed are eligible to benefits will increase the income security of the workers and reduce the negative consequences of hours-reductions. Those who advocate short hours can thus try to convince politicians to impose a public unemployment insurance which acknowledges part-time unemployment or create a private fund based on that principle. In Sweden there was, as mentioned, no public unemployment insurance until 1935 but there were several private schemes run by unions. Most of these schemes did not hand out benefits to part-time unemployed.¹⁷

To conclude, the trade-off between workers and hours is, although often neglected, an important aspect of how employers and workers respond to shortage of work. The existence of fixed labour costs may induce employers to implement hours-reductions in temporary crises, but make them more sceptical towards the same measure as a way of dealing with long-term changes. Unions, on the other hand, may differ in their opinions about hours-reductions, for example, depending on whether the industry is characterized by seasonality, how many workers are organized, wage level and so forth. In the following section we take a closer look at working hours in the Swedish tobacco industry.

establish […]”.¹⁸ Most workers could come and go as they wished, which may be related to the common use of piece rates. Eventually, working hours became more strictly regulated. In the 1914 collective agreement for cigar workers the normal week was set to 57 hours.¹⁹ Workers were entitled to wage additions after ten hours on a weekday and after 14.00 on a Saturday. These stipulations remained unchanged after the creation of the Tobacco Monopoly.²⁰ In 1918, that is two years before the national legislation, the normal working week was reduced to 48 “effective” hours.²¹ Work exceeding 8.5 hours on weekdays and 5.5 hours on Saturdays was considered as overtime. Wage additions amounted to 25 percent for the first hour, 50 percent the second hour, 75 percent the third hour and thereafter 100 percent. The normal working week and the wage additions remained unchanged throughout the 1920s.²²

Overtime and shift work were, however, frequently disputed issues in the negotiations between employer and union. A central aspect in these discussions was the high share of women in the industry. The union representatives argued that it was important for married female workers to be able to combine work with domestic duties, and that it was therefore necessary to shorten the normal working week, abolish shift work (in the mornings) and restrict the management’s right to demand overtime.²³ This kind of argumentation had some effect on the management. The 1919 agreement stated that overtime work on holidays would only be demanded “when conditions made it absolutely necessary”, and that notice of overtime would be given two days in advance and

18 Undersökning af tobaksindustrin i Sverige 1899, p 98.

19 MS, FHK, Arbets- och löneavtal, F8F: 1, Öfverenskommelse mellan Svenska Cigarrfabrikantföreningen och Internationella Tobaksarbetareförbundet i Sverige 1914.

20 MS, FHK, Arbets- och löneavtal, F8F: 1, Arbets- och löneföreskrifter vid A.-B. Svenska Tobaksmonopolets cigarrfabriker 1915.

21 MS, FHK, Arbets- och löneavtal, F8F: 1, Arbets- och löneföreskrifter inom Aktiebolaget Svenska Tobaksmonopolets fabriker och övriga arbetsplatser 1918.

22 MS, FHK, Arbets- och löneavtal, F8F: 1, Arbets- och löneföreskrifter inom Aktiebolaget Svenska Tobaksmonopolets fabriker och övriga arbetsplatser 1921; MS, FHK, Arbets- och löneavtal, F8F: 1, Arbets- och löneföreskrifter inom Aktiebolaget Svenska Tobaksmonopolets fabriker och övriga arbetsplatser 1924; MS, FHK, Arbets- och löneavtal, F8F: 1, Arbets- och löneföreskrifter inom Aktiebolaget Svenska Tobaksmonopolets fabriker och övriga arbetsplatser 1926; MS, FHK, Arbets- och löneavtal, F8F: 1, Arbets- och löneföreskrifter inom Aktiebolaget Svenska Tobaksmonopolets fabriker och övriga arbetsplatser 1930.

23 ARAB, STF, Förhandlingar, F01: 3 5 November 1918; ARAB, STF, Förhandlingar, F01: 4 13 November 1925.

that the management would try to avoid summoning female workers with families to take care of.²⁴ A rule stating that workers could not refuse overtime was abolished at the same time.

Not surprisingly the issue of overtime work was closely related to business cycles. During the post-war depression there were no discussions about workers having to extend their normal days but in the mid-1920s the issue reappeared.

The union demanded higher compensation for overtime work, complaining that the company had demanded too much overtime.²⁵ Wallenberg replied that this had been an extraordinary measure caused by delayed machine deliveries. He considered the overtime pay enough to discourage the management from extending working days more than was absolutely necessary and informed the union that attempts had been made to avoid overtime by rehiring retired workers (and others). The negotiations in 1925 did not result in any changes and overtime compensation remained as it had been, but the discussion is interesting since it shows the tobacco workers’ reluctance to meet upturns by adjusting the number of hours. This reluctance is likely a factor that reduced the potential to deal with downturns by hours-reductions, since it is easier to go from overtime to the normal working day than to cut hours when the point of departure is the normal working day.

It has been established that temporary hours-reductions may be associated with costs if the firm has no previous experience of the measure, and that it is therefore most likely to appear in industries characterized by temporary swings in labour demand. In such contexts, firms have repeated opportunities to find ways to organize hours-reductions efficiently.

Although tobacco factories were usually shut down for a couple of weeks over Christmas, the tobacco industry was not known to be characterized by seasonality.²⁶ Swedish tobacco factories were not dependent on local harvest seasons and could keep production on a fairly even level throughout the year.

Still, there is some evidence indicating that hours-reductions were carried through in the turbulent year that preceded nationalization. On 1 November 1914, about one fourth of the tobacco workers were employed four hours per day. Another fourth worked between five and eight hours a day. In addition to

24 MS, FHK, Arbets- och löneavtal, F8F: 1, Arbets- och löneföreskrifter inom Aktiebolaget Svenska Tobaksmonopolets fabriker och övriga arbetsplatser 1919.

25 ARAB, STF, Förhandlingar, F01: 4, 13 November 1925.

26 An inquiry about working hours published in 1911 identified a number of industries where labour demand was strongly related to season; the tobacco industry was not one of them. Arbetstidens längd inom industri och handtverk i Sverige 1911, p 122.

this, many factories were closed on Saturdays.²⁷ Temporary hours-reductions were thus not unknown before nationalization. This is also seen in the fact that the congress of the Tobacco Workers’ Union took position for short hours in temporary downturns as far back as 1906.²⁸

Eventually, the union also managed to get the employer to accept the inclusion of a formulation regarding hours-reductions in the collective agreement. In the negotiations that began in 1918 the union demanded that “[i]n the case of a production restriction, working hours should be reduced or the production should be restricted to a certain work quantity per week”.²⁹ Wallenberg initially opposed making a formal pledge of this kind, arguing that it was a restriction of the employer’s freedom to lead and manage work.³⁰ He also thought that the formulation was unnecessary, since it only stated the actual policy of the company. The final formulation, which was in the form of an amendment to the agreement of 1919, was a compromise that left the management with more scope for action. It had the following wording:

In the event of a more temporary shortage of work, the management of the Tobacco Monopoly, if possible, will try to prevent or limit unemployment by shortened working-time, or other form of work rationing.³¹

In comparison with the original union proposal, the implementation of short hours was thus seen as a temporary measure that would be applied only if conditions so demanded. The short hours clause remained unchallenged and unchanged in the collective agreements of the Tobacco Monopoly throughout the period of our investigation. Thus, the two parties agreed in principle that cutting hours was the best way to meet temporary downturns but in practice the statement left room for interpretation. What was a temporary downturn? At what point should the hours-reductions be abandoned in favour of workforce

27 Lindbom & Kuhm 1940, p 221. For earlier evidence of short hours, see also Undersökning af tobaksindustrin i Sverige 1899, p 98.

28 ARAB, STF, Kongressprotokoll, A01, 1906, pp 20-21; Lindbom & Kuhm 1940, p 170.

29 Swedish: ”Ifrågasättes inskränkning i tillverkningen bör arbetstiden avkortas eller tillverkningen begränsas till en viss arbetsmängd pr vecka.” ARAB, STF, Förhandlingar, F01: 3, 11 October 1918.

30 ARAB, STF, Förhandlingar, F01: 3, 6 November 1918.

31 Swedish: ”Vid inträffande, mera tillfällig arbetsbrist, ämnar Tobaksmonopolets ledning, i den mån förhållandena så medgiva, söka genom förkortad arbetstid eller annan form av arbetsransonering förebygga eller begränsa arbetslöshet.” MS, FHK, F8F: 1, Arbets- och löneavtal, Arbets- och löneföreskrifter vid Aktiebolaget Svenska tobaksmonopolets fabriker och övriga arbetsplatser 1919.

reductions? The following section offers a closer look at how hours-reductions were discussed between company and union and within these organizations.