Colliery Pay Sheds – A Denaby Departure – Convenience for Colliers.

December 1908

Mexborough and Swinton Times December 26, 1908

Colliery Pay Sheds.
A Denaby Departure.
Convenience for Colliers.

The new pay-shed in course of erection at Denaby Main is approaching completion, and in the new year, the men employed at the Denaby Main Colliery will be supplied with a most important convenience.

The utility of the pay-shed has been demonstrated during the present year at Cadeby, where for nearly twelve months a small army of workmen, about 1100 in number, has been able to settle its accounts in a roomy and well-equipped building in the colliery yard.

The “shed” is of ample dimensions, being 40 feet by 60 feet, slightly larger than the shed at Denaby. A clerk from the colliery offices attends with small change, and thus the contractors and the colliers are enabled to pay out to their labourers and fillers the amounts due to them expeditiously. The men have not been slow to appreciate the convenience.

Obviously there are considerable advantages to the men in being able to go straight from the pay-office to a building of this description, and to seat themselves at the movable tables provided for their use. There is less liability to error or leakage than if the men had to engage in their cash transactions in the street, or in a crowded public-house, the latter being the usual resort in many districts.

Of course, to pay wages in a public-house is illegal, but although the landlords of the district post prominent notices prohibiting the practice, the colliers and contractors often find it the most convenient resort—an undesirable state of things for both the landlord and the men.

From the domestic point of view, the pay-shed system works well. The husband gets home earlier on a Saturday, and the good wife gets her housekeeping money earlier, and there is the less liability of confusion.

We must congratulate the Colliery Company at Denaby upon recognising its responsibility to the 1100 men involved in the arrangement, (Of course, the datallers, and the pony drivers, who work independently and on a fixed scale of wages, have no need to resort to the pay-shed. The building, at Cadeby has other uses, for during the week the tables can be cleared away, and the Conisboro’ Territorials are provided with a capital Drill Hall.

When the new shed at Denaby is completed, nearly nine hundred men will benefit by it, so that altogether the Colliery Company makes provision for 2,000 people.

So far as we can ascertain, the erection of these pay-sheds is a new departure in the colliery world, and the example of the Denaby Colliery Company might be copied with advantage by the other coal-owners of the district.