Page:Trade Unions in Soviet Russia - I.L.P. (1920).djvu/90

 nationalist with the Communist party the internationalist members of the central committee and of the Board fused with the communists, thus increasing the number of votes of the latter.

The wage classification of our union on an All-Russian scale began to be applied only in February, 1919. The entire wage fixing work of the union is concentrated in the Tariff Department of the Central Committee. At present all the branches of the union have central tariff taxation commissions, whose duty it is to apply the tariffs in the area of their branch.

Every institution or enterprise, together with the committee of employees, organises a tariff commission composed of representatives in equal number of the clerks and the administration.

These commissions divide the clerks into groups and categories of the tariff net work, classifying the work of every single person, and fixing according to the tariff system the rate of pay, after which the lists are passed on to the Central Tariff Commission of the branch of the union. After having been confirmed by the latter Commission the tariffs become obligatory for the given institution. In case conflicts arise which cannot be settled in the Tariff Department of the Central Committee, the Higher Tariff Commission must be applied to the decisions of which are final in all questions of detail of principle.

Recently the Central Committee drew up a project for normal terms of labour and the introduction of the premium system of wages. These questions are quite new and extremely difficult for our union, but the first steps in this direction have been taken already the general scheme of the premium system of pay is worked out. This premium question is closely bound up with the question of raising the productivity of labour and of labour discipline; therefore when speaking of this question, several points besides the one fundamental point, that of strict regulation of the terms of labour—have to be considered, such as: reduced staffs, individual initiative, definite tasks (the execution of a definite piece of work, within a definite period) the stage of service in an institution (this being introduced for the purpose of combating the frequent changed of service from one institution into another).

In the provinces the premium system! of wages will be applied only after the schemes worked out by the Central Commission of the Union have been confirmed.

The distribution of special industrial clothing among the clerks also belongs to the sphere of activity of the tariff commission. According to the lists presented for the first receipt 138,000 garments have been received (footwear, various upper) clothing, warm clothing, overalls, gloves, half sleeves, etc.), which is about 70 per cent. of all the things required. The lists to be presented for the second receipt are not yet drawn up.