Piece Work in Russia

A “norm” on output has been agreed with the Union and payment above the flat rate depends on exceeding the norm. A telegraphist is expected to handle 100 cables per hour as the norm. For the off-peak period output is filled in largely by greeting telegrams received in advance.

In the sorting office working on a 48-box fitting the norm is 2,400 an hour or 40 a minute and on a 72-box fitting it is 1,800 an. hour or 30 a minute. In the first case I was assured that many sorters could reach 3,500 an hour and in the larger fitting it was not unusual to sort 2,500 an hour.

Whether or not a sorter reaches the norm and by how much she exceeds it is determined by weight. Letters and postcards are stacked in small containers and then weighed. A record is made and a duplicate slip placed with the correspondence in the container. Whoever sorts that particular container of work retains the slip and at the end of the duty has a number of these slips which, added together, show the total volume of correspondence sorted.

A member of the staff who doesn’t reach the norm is given “encouragement by her colleagues” and sometimes further training. This applies to each of the services and to industry generally. The interest of othcr members of the staff flows from the fact that, again in common with industry, the P.T.T. services can win awards for outstanding work. These awards take the form of “banners” and are accompanied by cash payments of as much as 400,000 roubles. Seventy per cent of this cash payment is disbursed to the staff as a bonus and the rest goes to> the Union to be spent on common welfare provisions and facilities.

– The Post, 3.12.60.