Margaret Isabel Cole

“ Co-partnership, as now understood, is distinctly a “paternal” movement, the dominant “partner” in industry being moved to confer a favour on its junior; and though the ideals of Owen, Fourier and the Christian Socialists may have had some influence on the minds of the earliest co-partners, a truer descendant than the co-partnership of to-day is the working-class Coöperative Movement, which aims at the supersession of capitalism. ”

“ The success or failure of profit-sharing plans depends on circumstances not touched by the profit-sharing principle. Where favourable results have been obtained, they were due, not to profit-sharing as a mechanical device, but to the confidence which the employees had in the management. ”

“ France, as it was the original home of co-partnership, has also been the country in which it has excited the most interest, and the comparative lack of trustification in French industry has made it easier for schemes established by individual firms to be accepted. The numerical weakness of French trade unionism has also made it easier to gain the adherence of French workers, for an established trade-union movement is generally hostile to co-partnership and profit-sharing. ”

“ The obvious intent of such regulations is to reduce labour turnover by rewarding the faithful. In this respect profit-sharing indirectly acts as a length-of-service bonus. A further rule as to eligibility in some plans is to require a written application from the employee who wishes to participate. In one such case employees are obligated to share in possible losses, not to exceed 10% of their earnings, 10% of their pay being held back by the employer each week to provide for this contingency. Loss-sharing in addition to profit-sharing is incorporated in four schemes. ”

“ Neither do all the smaller firms include by any means all their employees in their profit-sharing schemes. The proportion varies from case to case, falling as low, in the case of one firm of manufacturers, whose scheme dates from 1889, as 50 out of 1,500, or 31⁄3 per cent. It is clear that in this and similar cases the co-partnership is really a tiny experiment carried on with a few picked employees and is of infinitesimal significance in the industrial life of the country. ”

“ In 1870 the profit-sharing was extended to all the men employed, for however short a time, and upon this basis it has continued as “Brugniot, Cros et Cie. (ancienne maison Leclaire) .” The arrangement for division of profits is as follows:—5% is first paid on the capital; of the remainder 15% goes to the managing partners (who according to French law have unlimited liability) , 50% as a dividend to all workers in proportion to their time wages, and 35% to the mutual provident society—the “kernel”—which is now a partner in the business. The managing partners also receive a salary. ”

“ The only really large concern whose profit-sharing affects nearly the whole of its workpeople is the Prudential Assurance Co., 18,500 of whose 20,000 employees participate in its scheme. Details of the number participating are not available for schemes started since 1918, but as out of the 42 firms only eight have a pay-roll of over 1,000, while ten employ less than 100, it would seem that the proportions would not be materially altered if they were all included. ”

“ These variations in the progress of profit-sharing in the United States correspond with those in England, where profit-sharing plans found favour during periods of ample employment and labour unrest. It is only natural, however, that periods of low profits should check the spread of profit-sharing and cause the abandonment of many plans, the average life of abandoned plans being two to three years. ”

“ This definition, which is accepted by nearly all writers on profit-sharing, excludes on the one hand distributions made by a firm to its employees, say at Christmas, the amount of which is not fixed in advance, and to which the employees have no definite right. Such distributions are to industry what the Squire's coal and blankets are to village life, but they are not profit-sharing. ”

“ Discharge for cause or quitting employment entails an automatic forfeiture of all claims to accumulated or accruing shares in profits; in one plan discharge for cause is the only occasion for forfeiture. ”

“ In this article it is used to describe an arrangement by which employees, other than managerial employees, receive, in addition to wages or salaries, a share of the net profits of the business, such share being distributed at the time of the declaration of dividends to stockholders. The arrangement may be expressed either by a formal agreement or an oral promise. Although the profits are contingent, the percentage of profits to be distributed is fixed and known in advance, and, like dividends, is paid sometimes in whole or in part in stock instead of cash. ”

“ Four plans provide for workers' co-partnership committees, though there are several strictly stock-purchasing plans which allow shareholding employees to acquire a voice in management through the exercise of the ordinary voting rights of shareholders. ”

“ There remain 91 schemes which were abandoned owing to the dissatisfaction of owners or men with their results. The men's dissatisfaction can generally be traced to a simple cause—the smallness of the dividend distributed. The average rate of bonus paid to workmen under all schemes varies within narrow limits and is generally about 5% per annum on the total of their wages. Translated into cash, this meant in 1918 that 105 firms paid to their workmen an average of £3 13s. ”

“ As far as one can see, this attitude is not likely to be easily changed in the near future, and the co-partnership movement, therefore, is unlikely to spread beyond the small firms and the minor industries in which trade unionism is weak. ”