Springburn Virtual Museum

Railway industry

Tipping molten iron into mould in the foundry, St Rollox, c 1900

Up to 1945, workers were mainly concerned with struggle for a living wage and shorter hours. There were no effective laws enforcing health and safety at work, and unhealthy and dangerous conditions were accepted as risks of the job.

At the time of this picture, a typical working man's day was from 6am until 5:30pm, and accidents were commonplace due to tiredness and the use of dangerous belt-driven machinery. Men were also exposed to gases and fumes, and sometimes worked in extremely hot temperatures, working with furnaces and molten metal with only sacking as protection.

After the war, conditions and safety practices improved significantly. One of the shop steward's duties was to attend to safety. Companies were now bound by Board of Trade regulations, but their responsibilities stopped at pasting up a copy of the rules. The shop steward urged men to wear proper protective clothing and to fix faulty tools etc, as a worker's claim for compensation for any injury was highly unlikely to succeed.

Source: Glasgow City Archives