GLAUS SPHECKELS FUND
INSURANCE AGAINST
UNEMPLOYMENT
INSURANCE AGAINST
UNEMPLOYMENT.
BY
DAVID F. SCHLOSS
(3JL
LONDON
P. S. KING & SON
ORCHARD HOUSE, WESTMINSTER
1909
PREFACE
THE question of the proper methods to
be adopted for the alleviation of the dis-
tress caused by unemployment presses for
solution. Among such methods one of
very great interest is that, under which
provision is made against the loss con-
sequent upon the temporary suspension of
their earning power suffered by workpeople
during periods of unemployment by a system
of insurance. Under this system the arrange-
ment made is, that, by means of premiums,
contributed by the insurers, while they are
in work, there is accumulated a Fund, out
of which, in case of their becoming out of
work, they have the right to receive allow-
ances on a fixed scale. With the object
of encouraging this form of thrift, and of
supplementing the " unemployed benefits "
paid to the insured workpeople out of the
192593
vi PREFACE
resources at the disposal of these Unemploy-
ment Insurance Funds, the practice has in
recent years been adopted of supplementing
those resources by subventions granted out
of public moneys. This plan has been put
into operation in a large number of Euro-
pean countries (including France, Belgium,
Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Holland, Nor-
way and Denmark), but has so far not been
tried in the United Kingdom.
The only book published in this country,
which gives an account of the various schemes
of (assisted) Unemployment Insurance, is
the Report to the Board of Trade on Agencies
and Methods for Dealing with the Unem-
ployed in certain Foreign Countries, by the
present writer, which was issued in 1904
(Cd. 2304). Since that date, however, the
practice here referred to has received a very
great extension, and the present volume
brings the information contained in the
Report of 1904 up to date. 1
It appears to be generally supposed to be
1 While the Report here referred to was, of course,
an official publication, the present volume is a private
venture, for which no Government Department is in any
manner responsible.
PREFACE vii
highly probable, that, in the near future,
proposals will be made for the adoption in
this country of some measure in the nature
of publicly assisted Insurance against Unem-
ployment. Be that as it may, this form of
public assistance is certain to be among
those, the merits and demerits of which will
at no distant date come up for discussion ;
and under these circumstances the publication
of a short practical handbook of the subject
will, it is trusted, be considered to serve a
useful purpose.
So far as the contents of the book are
concerned, it will be seen, that, while no
attempt is made to discuss the question,
whether it is desirable or practicable to
introduce into the United Kingdom the
method of Unemployment Insurance here
under consideration, the pages, which follow,
contain a concise account of what has been
done in this direction by other nations, and
set forth in detail the foreign legislation on
this subject, and in particular, the text of
the Unemployment Insurance Laws passed
within the last few years in Norway and
Denmark.
The rules in force in regard to the
viii PREFACE
administration of certain typical Unemploy-
ment Insurance Funds are also printed in
the Appendices ; and a concise bibliography
of the subject is added. It is hoped that the
materials thus furnished may afford some
assistance in forming a judgment as to the
value and applicability of this method of
insurance and as to the general lines, upon
which, in the event of its being decided to
adopt such a system in this country, it
would be desirable to frame the necessary
legislation.
London^ February 1909.
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
PREFACE V
I. WHAT IS MEANT BY INSURANCE AGAINST UN-
EMPLOYMENT ..... I
DIFFERENT TYPES OF UNEMPLOYMENT . I
DIFFERENT TYPES OF UNEMPLOYMENT
INSURANCE 5
II. COMPULSORY INSURANCE .... 8
ST. GALL . . . . . . 8
III. VOLUNTARY INSURANCE . . . . 2O
DIFFERENT TYPES 2O
BERNE 21
BALE 25
VENICE 26
COLOGNE 27
LEIPSIC 29
GHENT ....... 30
OTHER BELGIAN MUNICIPALITIES, ETC. . 31
BELGIAN STATE SUBVENTION . . 32
MILAN 35
STRASSBURG 36
HOLLAND 38
FRANCE 39
MUNICIPAL AND DEPARTMENTAL SUB-
SIDIES 39
STATE SUBSIDIES . . . .41-
NORWAY 49
DENMARK 56
IV. CONCLUSIONS 72
x CONTENTS
APPENDIX PAGE
I. RULES OF THE BERNE MUNICIPAL UNEMPLOY-
MENT INSURANCE SCHEME . . 82
ADMINISTRATIVE REGULATIONS OF THE
BERNE MUNICIPAL UNEMPLOYMENT
INSURANCE FUND .... 85
II. REGULATIONS RELATING TO THE SCHEME OF
INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
- ESTABLISHED BY THE MUNICIPALITY
OF STRASSBURG. .... 89
III. NORWEGIAN LAWS CONCERNING STATE AND
COMMUNAL SUBSIDIES TO UNEMPLOY-
MENT INSURANCE FUNDS 93
IV. PART I.
DANISH LAW CONCERNING STATE AND
COMMUNAL SUBVENTIONS TO UNEM-
PLOYMENT INSURANCE FUNDS . . IOO
PART II.
MODEL RULES FOR UNEMPLOYMENT IN-
SURANCE FUNDS (TRADE FUNDS) . 112
V. LIST OF PRINCIPAL PUBLICATIONS DEALING
WITH THE QUESTION OF INSURANCE
AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT . . .126
INDEX 130
INSURANCE AGAINST
UNEMPLOYMENT
CHAPTER I
WHAT IS MEANT BY INSURANCE
AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
INSURANCE may for present purposes be taken to
be a system, under which, in return for premiums
paid by a number of persons, who, upon the
occurrence of a specified contingency will incur
financial loss, an indemnity (total or partial) is
secured to the insurers against this loss. The
particular form of insurance, of which it is the
object of these pages to give a brief account, is
that, in which the loss insured against is the loss
caused to workpeople by their unemployment. It
should, however, be explained that the contingency
covered by this insurance is not co-extensive with
all, but only with certain kinds of unemployment.
Different Types of Unemployment
Thus, unemployment arising from the voluntary
act or default of the insured is not, as a rule,
2 INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
covered by this form of insurance. If a workman,
who has effected an insurance against unemploy-
ment and . who, while out of work, is offered
employment in his own trade at wages and
; generally 5 - under conditions accepted as "fair" by
his trade union, refuses, with no good reason, to
accept that employment, then his consequent un-
employment will not entitle this insurer to receive
any indemnity for the loss of the wages, which he
might have received, had he accepted this offer.
While this rule is universally accepted, a great
deal of difficulty is caused by the contentions made
on behalf of the members of trade organizations of
workmen that, e.g.> an engineer is not bound to
accept employment as a navvy, that a trade
unionist ought not to be expected to take work
offered on conditions inferior to those recognized
by his trade union, and so on. Then as to lack of
work arising from the voluntary cessation of the
workman's labour in support of a trade dispute,
the loss thereby entailed is, according to the view
very generally accepted, a risk to be covered, not
by unemployment insurance, but by a separate
form of insurance under which, in such a case, the
insurer receives "strike pay." When, again, un-
employment is caused by the fact that an employer,
in furtherance of a trade dispute, " locks-out " his
workpeople, the risk in this case is in practice
always treated on the same footing as in the case
of a strike, it being usually considered that lock-
outs ought to be treated like strikes, because a
WHAT IS MEANT BY INSURANCE 3
lock-out is so often resorted to by the employer as
his best defence to a strike, actual or threatened.
On the other hand, in Germany, at any rate, many
trade unionists claim, that unemployment caused
by a lock-out, being involuntary on the part of the
workmen, ought to be held to be covered by
unemployment insurance.
Another form of unemployment is that caused
by the disablement, total or partial, of the workman
owing to either accident or sickness. There can
be no question, that under any complete system of
workmen's insurance the risk of unemployment
caused by the workman's being thus rendered
totally or partially incapable of performing labour,
ought to be (as in Germany it is) covered, not by
unemployment insurance, but by accident, sickness
and invalidity insurance ; and in fact all the exist-
ing types of unemployment insurance, in principle
at least, confine their operations to insurance
against the risk of unemployment incurred by able-
bodied workpeople.
If, accordingly, we limit our conception of un-
employment insurance in the manner just explained,
we shall find that the risks to be covered by such
insurance may conveniently be divided into five
main classes.
A. First we have the case of workpeople, who
find it impossible to obtain employment owing to
the progress of invention accompanied by the in-
troduction of new machinery or the adoption of
new processes of manufacture, e. g. y labourers in the
4 INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
building trade displaced by the steam navvy, brick-
layers displaced owing to the introduction of ferro-
concrete, hand-loom weavers displaced by the
power-loom, whip-makers displaced, owing to the
ever increasing number of motor vehicles. In
these cases the workpeople thus displaced may
in some cases learn to perform the new kind of
labour required (a hand-loom weaver turning into
a power-loom weaver, a coachman becoming a
chauffeur, etc.) ; if not, they can only obtain
employment by either taking up some other
branch of their old trade, or else entering an
entirely new occupation.
B. Next we have the workpeople, who are
temporarily thrown out of work by a spasmodic
depression affecting the whole of the industry in
which they are engaged, e.g., depression caused by
the outbreak of war, or famine, or pestilence in a
country to which we export largely, or from which
we import the raw materials (e.g., cotton) necessary
for production, or affecting the particular factory
in which these workpeople are employed (a mill
fire, the breakdown of machinery, the flooding of a
seam in a mine, etc.).
C. Then we have the case of workpeople thrown
into involuntary idleness by trade depression of a
cyclical nature the antithetic aftermath of a
periodically recurring " trade boom." When " good
times " return, all these workpeople will probably
again find work.
D. In the fourth place, we have the workpeople
WHAT IS MEANT BY INSURANCE 5
in the season trades, who are thrown out of work
by the fact, that the processes of manufacture
cannot be carried on conveniently or at all at
certain times of the year, e.g., some branches of the
building trade, on account of frost in winter ; fish-
curing and hop-picking, on account of the raw
material being only available at certain seasons;
some kinds of clothing manufacture, on account of
fluctuations in demand consequent upon weather
conditions (light women's boots, for example, being
mainly wanted in summer, dancing-shoes made
by a separate class of operatives mainly in winter).
These workpeople are fully employed, and, indeed,
often work overtime in the busy season, but get
little or nothing to do out of the busy season.
Their unemployment is intermittent.
E. In the last place we have the casual labourers
(mainly unspecialized), who in very many cases
hardly ever get a full week's work, often get only
a few days' work per week, and sometimes get none
at all (e.g., many dock labourers, shirt-makers, etc.).
Here there is at no time work enough to go round.
The condition of these workpeople is one of
permanent under-employment.
Different Types of Unemployment Insurance
Such being the risks to be covered by unem-
ployment insurance, it is to be observed, that this
insurance may be of either a voluntary or a
compulsory character, and that in either case the
premiums paid under a scheme of unemployment
6 INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
insurance may be paid (a) entirely by the work-
people concerned, or (&) partly by the workpeople
concerned and partly by their employers, or (c)
wholly by their employers.
In addition, there are certain forms of unem-
ployment insurance, which are distinguished from
those just enumerated by the fact, that either the
premiums paid by the insurers or the benefits
received by such of them as become unemployed
are supplemented either by charitable donations
or by subventions granted by the Public Author-
ities (State or Municipal), or by both these kinds of
subsidies.
With respect to voluntary insurance, the most
important type is that organized in this and other
countries by the unassisted efforts of trade union
organizations ; no detailed explanation of this
well-known form of insurance is required here ;
nor, again, will any attempt be made in this place
to deal with the various projects for the adoption
of schemes of unemployment insurance (such, for
example, as those, under which it has been proposed
to establish a compulsory system, with contributions
from employers as well as from workpeople and
from the State) which have from time to time been
put forward, but which have so far not been put
to the test of actual experience.
It is, on the other hand, the various systems
established in many countries, but so far untried
in the United Kingdom, under which the thrift of
the insured workpeople is supplemented by public
WHAT IS MEANT BY INSURANCE 7
subventions, that will be described here. These
are of two kinds. In the first place we have com-
pulsory insurance maintained by premiums paid
by the insured workpeople supplemented by a
Municipal subvention. In the second place we
have various types of voluntary insurance main-
tained by premiums paid by the insured workpeople
supplemented by subventions paid in some cases
(as a rule, not to any important extent) by charit-
able individuals or associations, 1 but in the main by
Public Authorities either Municipal, Provincial,
or State, or by Municipal and State Authorities
jointly. 2
1 In some cases these charitable individuals or associa-
tions are employers or organizations of employers ; in one
case the subsidies to the benefits granted by the organiza-
tions of the employees are, under a scheme adopted in 1906,
entirely contributed by an association of employers in the
embroidery industry in Eastern Switzerland (see Reichs-
Arbeitsblatt, the journal of the German Labour Department,
January 1907, pp. 39-45, and Sociale Praxis^ October 3, 1907,
cols. 19, 20).
2 In a few cases Municipal subventions have been granted
by way of supplement to the savings of individual workpeople.
This supplement is payable only if these persons become
unemployed, but in most cases they are allowed to withdraw
their own deposits, whether they become unemployed or
not. These cases are not examples of insurance, and will
not be discussed here.
CHAPTER II
COMPULSORY INSURANCE
St. Gall
ALTHOUGH the solitary example of compulsory
insurance against unemployment is one, from
which, owing to the defective manner in which this
experiment was carried out, it is not possible to
draw any very definite conclusions with regard
either to the advisability or the general prac-
ticability of this form of unemployment insurance,
yet on certain important points so much is
unquestionably to be learned from the experience
gained in this case, that a fairly full account of
the working of the St. Gall Municipal Unemploy-
ment Insurance Scheme (based mainly upon the
account of it given in the Report to the Board of
Trade on Agencies and Methods for Dealing with
the Unemployed in certain Foreign Countries by the
present writer), 1 will, it is believed, be of interest.
The scheme of compulsory insurance adopted
1 Cd. 2304 of 1904, pp. 143-148. A few of the details in
the text are taken from the Report on Unemployment
Insurance by the German Labour Department, Die besteh-
enden Einrichtungen zur Versicherung gegen die Folgen der
Arbeitslosigkeit im Auslande und im DeutschenReich^ Part I,
pp. 97-114.
8
COMPULSORY INSURANCE 9
by the Municipality of the town of St. Gall was
introduced by virtue of a Law passed on May 19,
1894, by the Great Council of the Canton of St.
Gall, under which power was given to Municipal
and other Communal Authorities to introduce a
system of insurance against unemployment, which
should be obligatory for all male wage-earning
workmen whose average daily earnings did not
amount to more than 4^. ; any men earning more
than this amount might insure themselves, if they so
wished, on the same terms as the persons for whom
insurance was compulsory. On the other hand,
if a man could show that he was already a member
of an association providing unemployed pay at
least equal in amount to that provided by the
Compulsory Insurance Fund, he had a right to be
released from the obligation to insure with the
Compulsory Fund. Any Fund to be established
by virtue of this Law could provide by its rules,
that women should be insured with the Fund,
either voluntarily or compulsorily.
The general conditions, under which any Fund
established under this Law should be organized,
were prescribed by the Statute. Among these
conditions is the provision, that no one should
receive unemployed pay unless it should be found
impossible to offer him " work suitable to the trade
to which he belonged, or to his strength, remun-
erated by the wages current in the district." The
right to receive unemployed pay was to begin only
after the insurer should have paid the premiums
io INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
fixed by the rules of the Fund for an uninterrupted
period of six months at the least ; in the case of
foreigners a longer period might be required.
The expenses of administration incurred in
connection with the Insurance Fund were to be
paid out of the moneys of the Police Force ; all
other expenses of the Fund were to be met (a) by
the premiums paid by the insured, (b) by voluntary
subscriptions and donations, (c) by grants from the
Municipalities or Communes concerned, not to
exceed is. 7'2d. per insured person per year, (d) by
subventions from the Canton, the amount of which
was to be fixed in the Budget of that State, (e) by
subventions, if any such should be granted, from
the Swiss Federal Government.
It was at first proposed that a Compulsory
Unemployment Insurance Fund should, under the
provisions of this Law, be established by the three
Municipalities of St. Gall, Tablat and Straubenzell
jointly. But, upon the matter being brought before
a town's meeting at Tablat, the scheme was
rejected by a large majority this decision being
arrived at largely in consequence of the unsympa-
thetic attitude towards these proposals taken up
by the working-classes at Tablat ; and St. Gall
determined to undertake the scheme by itself, as
an experiment to be tried for two years.
The scheme, which was put into operation as
from July I, 1895, provided for the payment of
weekly premiums varying with the daily earnings
of the insured on the following scale :
COMPULSORY INSURANCE n
For men with earnings of is. 4*8^., or less . r^d.
For men with earnings of over 2s. 4*8^.,
up to 3^. 2*4*/. i 'f)d.
For men with earnings of over y. 2'4</.,
up to 4$- 2*9^.
In order to be entitled to claim unemployed pay,
the insurer must have paid his premiums for an
uninterrupted period of six months (or, if a
foreigner, twelve months) ; but in certain cases the
obligation to pay premiums was not to apply, viz. to
insurers while receiving unemployed benefit from
the Fund ; to sick persons, upon production of a
medical certificate ; and to persons injured by
accident, if such persons were not entitled to claim
damages under the Employers' Liability Law.
The scale of unemployed pay provided was a
daily sum payable for a maximum period of sixty
" working " days in any one year, and varying with
the amount of the weekly premium paid by the
insured in the following manner :
Amount of Premium.
Amount of Unemployed Pay, which men paying
the Premiums shown in the preceding
column were entitled to receive.
d.
i "4 per week.
i '9
2'9
S. d.
i 5 -3 per day.
i 8-2
i iro
At times of industrial depression, and when
there were large claims on the Fund, the Com-
mittee of Management was empowered to reduce
12 INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
the unemployed pay of unmarried men, but not to
a lower figure than 9 '6d. per day. If, notwith-
standing such reduction, and though the Fund was
in receipt of full subventions on the part of the
Municipality and the Canton, the available re-
sources of the Fund should prove insufficient, the
Committee was empowered to reduce the unem-
ployed pay of those insurers, who were entitled to
receive pay at the higher rates, and in case of
extreme need might lower the entire scale.
The Municipality was to pay to the Fund a
subvention at the rate authorized by the Law.
Insurers, whose unemployment was caused
exclusively through their own serious misconduct,
or to their having ceased work in consequence of
a strike, or who refused to accept work offered to
them without reasonable ground for such refusal,
or who were incapable of working owing to
accident, sickness, or other causes, or who were
serving with the colours, could not claim unem-
ployed pay.
Unemployment on any one occasion for less than
five consecutive days within three months gave no
right to unemployed pay ; in special cases the
decision rested with the Committee.
The Committee of Management was to consist
of nine members, two appointed by the Municipal
Council and seven chosen from the working-men
insured with the Fund, of whom four were to be
named by the Labour Federation of St. Gall,
one was to be named by the same Federation (but
COMPULSORY INSURANCE 13
to be selected by that organization from among
the non-unionist workmen), and two others by the
Municipal Council, who should, in appointing
these two members, have special regard to the
branches of trade not otherwise represented on the
Committee.
The compositors were released from the obliga-
tion to insure themselves, because their trade
union already paid unemployed benefit ; the
messengers, commissionaires, etc., because it was
said to be impossible to ascertain the facts as
to their earnings or their unemployment ; the
employees of the Postal and Telegraph service and
the railways, because they only lose their employ-
ment (as a rule) through their own serious
misconduct, and in that case the rules of the
Fund would have excluded them from all
right to claim unemployed pay an exemption,
which, while it ought logically to have also been
granted in the case of many other forms of
employment, was beyond question altogether in-
consistent with the provisions of the Law, under
which this scheme was authorized to be carried
out.
Women were never allowed to insure themselves
with the Fund ; this was in accordance with the
rules of the scheme.
Very great difficulty was found in inducing the
persons bound to insure with the Fund to enter
their names on the register ; and in the first six
months no less than 155 persons were fined for not
14 INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
registering themselves. Notwithstanding this pres-
sure, even at the end of the first twelve months,
350 persons, who ought to have registered, had not
done so.
The number of persons, who entered themselves
as earning sums so small as to place them in the
lower classes (paying lower premiums), was very
much greater than was expected. Even so, the
greatest possible difficulty was experienced in
obtaining payment of the premiums due. In
particular, the foreigners, who could not claim un-
employed pay at all during the first twelve months,
defaulted in large numbers, no less than 538 out of
1,027 dropping their premium payments in the first
year ; most of these defaulters left the town, so far
as could be ascertained. At the end of the second
year no fewer than 1,396 insurers (the total number
of the persons insured with the Fund being 2,800-
3,000) owed the Fund between them 228 for
arrears of premium.
The principal cause of unemployment appears to
have been seasonal slackness, especially in the
building trades. In January 1896 (before which
date no one had any claim on the Fund), the
number reporting themselves unemployed was 287 ;
in February 1896, 78 ; in December 1896, 287; in
January 1897, in ; and in February 1897, 48.
No less than 118 of the unemployed in the first, and
183 in the second year were foreigners. This fact
is stated to be due to the geographical position of
St. Gall.
COMPULSORY INSURANCE 15
The percentage of the different classes of em-
ployees insuring themselves with the Fund, who
reported themselves as unemployed, varied very
much. In the first year 4,220 persons registered
with the Fund, but 1,185 were struck off the register
(having died, gone away, etc.). Trades represented
by 764 registered persons did not report any
unemployed, and many others reported but few.
On the other hand, 43-2 per cent, of the navvies
and day labourers, and 22*4 per cent, of the brick-
layers, reported themselves unemployed. In all,
430 persons out of 4,220 reported that they had
become unemployed ; but 67 could not claim any
payment, either because they had not lived long
enough in St. Gall, or because they found work,
and only 363 actually came on the Fund, of whom
42 received unemployed pay for 5 to 9 days, 58
for 10 to 19 days, 50 for 20 to 29 days, 59 for 30 to
39 days, 39 for 40 to 49 days, 38 for 50 to 59 days,
and 77 for the maximum possible period of 60
days. On the average, the number of (" working ")
days, for which unemployed pay was disbursed, was
35*2 per man.
In the second year of the Fund's operations the
number of persons reporting themselves as un-
employed was 512, of whom by far the greatest
number (189) were navvies and labourers, while 58
were bricklayers. The number actually coming on
the Fund was 498, of whom 198 drew unemployed
pay for more than 50 (" working ") days.
The average amount of the unemployed pay
1 6 INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
received by the insurers in the first year was just
under 44^. and in the second just 6os. per man.
The total amount of the premiums paid in the
first year was 867, and the total amount paid
as unemployed pay was 940. (It will be re-
membered that no one could come on the Fund at
all in the first six months of this year, and that no
foreigner had any claim at all during this twelve
months.) In the second year of the Fund's exist-
ence the premiums paid were 628, and the
unemployed pay amounted to ; 1,535.
The total amount, which, during the two years of
its being in operation, the Fund received by way
of subventions out of public moneys was 1,125, of
which sum 885 was granted by the Municipality
of St. Gall, and 240 by the Canton ; but in spite
of these large subventions, when the expenses of
administration (printing, salaries of clerks, etc.)
were added to the amount of the unemployed pay
distributed, the result was that a substantial amount
still remained uncovered, the books of the Fund
showing a deficit on the working of its second year
of no less than 222.
The scheme was always unpopular with the St.
Gall working-men, especially because under it no
contributions were required to be paid by the
employers ; and at the earnest request of the work-
people insured with the Fund, especially of the best
workmen, who objected to going on paying
premiums but never receiving benefits (all the
more so as the amount of these premiums was
COMPULSORY INSURANCE 17
higher in proportion to their own relatively high
earnings, and this, although these men were them-
selves only to a slight extent exposed to the risk
of becoming unemployed), a resolution was, on
November 8, 1896, passed authorizing the termina-
tion of the operations of the Fund, which came to a
close on June 30, 1897, a ^ ter an existence of two
years.
With respect to the results achieved, it appears
to be clear, that the benefits intended to be con-
ferred by this scheme were, in fact, received by
only a small class of workmen, principally by men
engaged in trades affected by seasonal depression
(mainly building trades). A very large proportion
of the working-men at St. Gall were never insured
at all (25 per cent, in the first year ; as to the
second year, no details on this point are available).
So far as concerns the method of administration,
this was extremely defective. Not only (as has
already been seen) was the Law governing the
establishment of the Fund violated, but the rules
of the Fund were at no time properly observed.
Thus, in the first year of the Fund's existence,
men, who had not fulfilled the requirement that
they should have paid their premiums for an
uninterrupted period of six months, and who were
months in arrear with their payments, were
allowed to receive unemployed pay, merely having
their arrears, plus a fine of is. J'2d. per month,
deducted from this pay ; if the rules had been pro-
perly carried out with respect to this requirement,
c
1 8 INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
not twenty among all the unemployed would have
received any unemployed pay whatever.
No adequate attempt was made to verify the
fact of unemployment, much less to inquire into
the reasons for a man's having lost his work. Sick
persons (who had no claim) received their pay
until they were found out. Men, who might have
got work by going away from the town to places
where their labour was required, as they had done
in other winters, preferred to stay in the town and
draw their unemployed pay. If men were offered
work not exactly in their own trades, they declined
to take it. In other cases navvies and labourers,
when offered work, declined to accept it on the
terms offered. Many men much preferred to go
on receiving as much unemployed pay as possible
rather than take any job. A great part of the
unemployed pay found its way into the tills of the
public-houses.
The Report of the second year's working con-
tains the following remarks : " It must also be
stated that in the second, as in the first year, a
large number of men drew the full maximum of
unemployed pay, and then at once left St. Gall.
" More than one-half of the men, who drew
unemployed pay this year, 258 [out of 498], were
men who had drawn such pay in the preceding
year. If the scheme had been continued, these
men would have formed the regular clientele of the
Fund.
" The worst men in regard to the payment of
COMPULSORY INSURANCE 19
premiums, with a few exceptions, drew unemployed
pay again this year. Many of them never paid
their premiums at all until they had actually
become unemployed, and then they paid in four,
five, six or even more monthly premiums in arrear,
all in one lump sum, in order to be able to draw
unemployed pay."
One reason for the failure of this scheme is said
to have been, that the administration of the Fund
was made part of the business of the Poor Law
Department of the St. Gall Municipality a fact,
which gave the scheme at once an outdoor relief
complexion, and added to the hostility of the
better situated among the working-classes. What
is more, the officer in charge of the Poor Law
Department, though his work was thus greatly
increased, received no extra pay for the perform-
ance of his duties in connection with the Fund.
Then, again, the task of supervising the distribu-
tion of the unemployed pay was entrusted to a
sub-committee of five members, all of whom were
working-men, a fact, which caused the action and
decisions of this sub-committee to be regarded
with prejudice, it being supposed that they must
of necessity be unduly favourable to the working-
classes.
In the last place the organization of the Labour
Registry, worked in connection with the Un-
employment Insurance Fund, was extremely
defective.
CHAPTER III
VOLUNTARY INSURANCE
Different Types
THE different schemes of voluntary (assisted)
insurance against unemployment divide them-
selves into two principal classes, according as the
associations of insurers are or are not separate
for separate trades, or at any rate, for, separate
groups of trades (each group comprising trades
with generally identical risks of unemployment).
There is also a type of unemployed insurance
coming between the two just named, viz. that, in
which, although different occupations are included
in a common Fund, yet distinct rates of premium
are charged to different persons according to the
estimated risk of unemployment incurred by each.
Of the mixed risk type of unemployed insurance
we have examples in Switzerland at Berne, estab-
lished in 1893, and at Bale (1901) ; in Italy at
Venice (1901), and in Germany at Cologne (1896).
The only example of the intermediate type (in
which different occupations are " lumped together,"
but different rates of premium are charged accord-
ing to the estimated risk of unemployment) is to
be found at Leipsic (1905). The largest class
20
VOLUNTARY INSURANCE 21
among unemployment insurance schemes is that
of the single, uniform-risk type, in which the
organization carrying out the insurance is an
association of workmen engaged in the same trade
or in one or other of a group of allied trades in
practice always a trade union organization. This
class comprises the schemes in force in Belgium at
Ghent (1901), Antwerp (1902), and in a considerable
number of other towns, and the system of State
subventions introduced by Belgium in 1908, as
well as the similar schemes in force in Italy at
Milan (1905) ; in France, where in recent years
the system has been introduced by the Local
Authorities in a large number of places (including
Amiens, Limoges and Rheims) and by the State
under the Decrees of 1905, 1906, and 1908 ; in
Germany at Strassburg (1907) ; and in Holland
at Amsterdam, Arnhem, and Utrecht (1906), and
a number of other places. Legislation providing
for public subsidies to Unemployment Insurance
Funds on the same lines has been recently
enacted by Norway (1906, amended 1908), and
by Denmark (I9O7). 1
Berne
The Berne Unemployment Insurance Scheme is
a Municipally organized institution, with which, in
1 The Municipality of Luxemburg, in 1904, voted a sum
f >7S by way of subvention to the Unemployment Insur-
ance Funds maintained by trade societies ; but particulars
as to this matter are not available.
22 INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
theory at least, 1 workpeople engaged in any occu-
pation are allowed to insure themselves, the funds
required for the payment of the unemployed benefits,
payable only in respect of unemployment during a
maximum of seventy days in the winter months
(December to March), 2 being provided to a small
extent by the insurers, but mainly by a relatively
large subsidy granted by the Municipality of
Berne. The system is marked as one of a
virtually Poor Law character by the fact that,
although all insurers pay the same premium (6\d.
per month), the unemployed benefit is on a differ-
ent scale for single men and for men with families
(is. 2%d. per day for men without, is. *]\d. per day
for men with dependants).
Originally there was no age limit and no right
to refuse men with impaired working capacity ;
but since 1900, persons incapable of doing a fair
day's work and persons over sixty years of age
have been excluded from membership.
When this scheme was started in 1893, the Rules
required that, in order to be entitled to claim
1 Although not in accordance with the Rules of the Fund,
it is the fact (as the present writer ascertained when personally
investigating the Berne system on the spot) that the Manag-
ing Committee decline to insure any wood-choppers a class
of workpeople with very irregular employment and not over-
fond of work.
2 Every person insured with the Berne Fund, who reports
himself unemployed, is required to verify the fact by attend-
ing roll-call (at the Municipal Labour Exchange) twice a
day. The Municipality specially reserves public works to be
done in winter by persons insured with the Fund.
VOLUNTARY INSURANCE 23
benefit if he became unemployed, a man must
have paid his premiums regularly for six months
at least ; in 1900 this was raised to eight months.
In 1897 a requirement was introduced that, in
order to claim unemployed benefit, a man must
show that he had been employed for at least
six months in the preceding year. Up to 1903
the employees of the Municipality were compelled
to insure themselves with the Fund ; as soon as
this compulsion was removed, they ceased to do so. 1
The net result of these alterations (it will be
seen) is to exclude from membership persons
whose employment is, even in the summer months,
distinctly irregular. On the other hand, it is
obvious, that persons, who feel fairly secure of
regular employment all through the year, have
nothing to gain by insuring themselves with the
Berne Fund. The class of persons, who enjoy
the advantages of the Berne scheme are, there-
fore, neither of the very casual class nor of the
very regularly employed class, but of the class of
men who in winter find it difficult to obtain really
continuous employment. The percentage of the
insured, who at some time or other in the winter
have been unemployed, has in recent years varied
between 38 and 51 per cent. In 1907-8 (a period
of good trade except for painters and stone-
1 In 1895 it was proposed to make insurance against
unemployment at Berne compulsory ; but this plan had to be
abandoned on account of the opposition of the better-paid
workpeople, who regarded it as an attempt to tax them for
the benefit of their less highly-paid fellows.
24 INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
carvers) out of the total number of 508 insured
members of the Fund, 233 (46 per cent.) became
unemployed, almost the whole of them being
engaged in one branch or another of the building
trade (60 per cent, of all unemployed being
builders' labourers and navvies, 21 per cent, being
bricklayers, masons, plasterers, etc.). The Report
of the Fund states that " It was found possible to
pay the full benefit provided by the Rules, viz. for
the first 30 days 1 is. J\d. to married men and
is. 2\d. per day to men without dependants,
and for unemployment lasting longer than thirty
days the benefit was reduced to is. 2\d. and 7\d.
per day respectively. Twenty-one unemployed
received benefits amounting in each case to over
4, the highest amount being 4. 43., which was
received by sixteen out of these twenty-one
persons." In order to receive these small daily
allowances the insured paid premiums amounting
in the aggregate to 157, while the Municipal
subvention was no less than 480, and various
employers gave contributions amounting in all to
a little over 40.
Within the limited sphere of its operations the
Berne scheme, although partaking rather of the
character of poor relief than of insurance, cannot
be considered to be unsuccessful.
1 Originally no benefit could be claimed until after a man
had been unemployed for one week ; but by an alteration in
the Rules made in Nov. 1907, the right to receive benefit
commences at once.
VOLUNTARY INSURANCE 25
The Rules and Administrative Regulations of
the Berne scheme are^ printed in full in Appendix
I, post, pp. 82-88.
Bdle
The Bale experiment (commenced early in 1901)
was somewhat on the same lines as that at Berne,
also with a public subvention (from the Canton
of Bale) ; but both with respect to the premiums
and the benefit, the Bale scheme differed from that
in force at Berne. The amount of the premium
at Bale varied in proportion to the earnings of the
insured, e.g., for earnings not exceeding $s. 2\d.
per day, ^\d. per month; for earnings up to 4^.,
5fdl, and for earnings over 4$-., 6\d. (Up to 1906,
the premiums were 3f d., ^\d. and 5 \d. respectively.)
The amount of the benefit (payable during not
more than 42 days) was the same for married as
for single men. This amount was at first g\d. per
day, then 15-. old., and in 1906-7 was raised to
is. 2\d. At one time (in 1902-3) the membership
was as high as 1,174; but in 1903-4 a rule was
adopted for the exclusion of members more than
six months in arrear with their subscriptions ; no
less than 274 were struck off the list for this reason
in 1904-5 ; and in 1906-7 (the last year during
which the fund was in operation) the number of
members had fallen to 457, of whom 179 (39 per
cent.) became unemployed. The total amount of
the unemployed benefit received by these 179
unemployed persons was 291. The premiums
26 INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
paid by the insured amounted to no more than
^"84, or 29 per cent, of the amount of the benefits
paid. In 1906-7 the benefits could only be paid
by resorting (as had been done in previous years)
to the Reserve Fund ; and it was admitted by the
Administration of the Fund that its finances were
in hopeless confusion. The persons insured with
the Fund were mainly men in the building trades ;
the bricklayers, masons and labourers received
between them much more than three-fourths of all
the money spent in unemployed benefit.
The Bale scheme, an acknowledged failure, is
stated to have been definitely abandoned. 1
Venice
Of this scheme it is enough to say, that it was
framed in 1901 upon the most unpractical lines,
that the proportion of its members, who became
1 There has also been an experiment in unemployment
insurance at Geneva, established towards the end of 1904,
somewhat on the Bale lines, but with premiums of <)\d. per
month for workpeople whose daily wages do not exceed 3^.,
and i\\d. for those with wages above 55. a day, and with
benefits at the rate of is. i\d. per day for those who belong
to the first, and of is. ^\d. per day for those who belong to
the second of these two wage-classes ; but to these benefits
is added an extra g\d. per day for each child under 14 years
of age. This experiment has almost totally failed, and its
operations have been upon a quite microscopic scale. The
Council of the Canton of Appenzell (Ausserrhodisch) on
May 1 8, 1908, voted 20 for the payment of subsidies to
Unemployment Insurance Funds ; this scheme is not yet
developed (Zeitschrift fur Schweizerische Statistik, 54th
year, vol. i, pp. 20, 21).
VOLUNTARY INSURANCE 27
unemployed, was enormously high, that the pre-
miums paid by the insured covered only a minute
proportion of the benefits paid, and that the
necessary outlay had to be met indirectly by very
large contributions from the Municipality of Venice
and partly by donations from charitable individuals,
and that the philanthropic society, by which it was
founded, in a report issued by it in October 1904,
admitted frankly, that it was a total failure.
Cologne
The scheme of Municipally subsidized Unem-
ployment Insurance established at Cologne in 1896,
provides against winter (December I to March
i inclusive) unemployment only, and excludes
from membership (i) all persons who have not
resided at Cologne for at least one year, and (2) all
persons with no definite, recognized occupation, and
all casual labourers. A further exclusion of persons
irregularly employed is maintained by the require-
ment made, that the premiums payable by the
insured must be paid for 34 weeks in the year, and
that all claim to receive unemployed benefit is
forfeited by any man who is four weeks in arrear
with the payment of his premiums. The present
scale of the premium is ^\d. per week for unskilled,
and 5j</. per week for skilled men (virtually all
except labourers). The benefits paid are 2s. a day
for the first 20 days of unemployment (after the first
3), and i s. a day for a maximum of 28 further days ;
but persons, who in two following winters have
28 INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
drawn 75 per cent, or more of the maximum benefit
(3 8.T.), are in the third winter allowed to draw no
more than 2s. a day for the first 20, and is. a day
for 14 further days of unemployment. 1
In order to maintain the solvency of the Fund,
the rules provide that, if the maximum possible
claims on the insurances already effected with the
Fund shall amount to two-thirds of the assets of the
Fund, then thereafter no fresh members shall be
accepted.
The resources at the disposal of the Fund avail-
able for the payment of benefits consist of the
premiums paid by the insured (in 1907-8, .1,040),
of subventions paid by the Municipality of Cologne
(1,000 in 1907-8), of voluntary donations (a
decreasing source of income in 1907-8, 122), and
of the interest on capital belonging to the Fund,
such interest amounting in 1907-8 to 336.
The number of the insured was in 1907-8, 1,382,
of whom 1,127 (8 1 '5 of all) reported themselves as
unemployed. But of these, 21 obtained employ-
ment before their claim on the Fund became due,
and three lost their rights because they gave wrong
information, so that only 1,103 actually came upon
the Fund. For 891 of these the Cologne Labour
Exchange found temporary employment, 2 and six
1 Every person reporting himself unemployed is required,
if so directed, to present himself twice a day, at such times
as he may be instructed, at the office of the Fund.
2 It seems probable, that some of this was employment on
relief works provided by the Municipality ; for the great
amount of assistance in finding employment for the persons
VOLUNTARY INSURANCE 29
others were excluded from further benefit for
untruthfulness ; and thus the total number of days
of unemployment, for which the Fund was liable to
pay benefit, was reduced to 29,899, in respect of
which a total of .2,433 was paid as unemployed
benefit. It will be remarked, that of this total of
2,433, no more tnan about 42 \ per cent, was
provided by the premiums paid by the insured.
It should be added, that out of the 1,103 members
of this Fund, who became unemployed in 1907-8,
295 are classed as " unskilled workmen " ; practically
all the others were craftsmen engaged in one
branch or another of the building trades. It will
be seen, that the field of operation covered by the
Cologne scheme is narrow (being mainly confined to
meeting the case of seasonal unemployment so far
as it affects the more regularly employed men in
the building trades) ; but within these limits the
scheme must be considered to be a good example
of what it is possible to effect by a well-organized
scheme of Unemployment Insurance, in close
connection with a well-managed Labour Exchange.
Leipsic
Coming now to the solitary example of the
intermediate type of Unemployment Insurance
(that, in which men of different occupations insured
with one common Fund are charged varying
insured with the Fund given by " the superior authorities "
is gratefully acknowledged in the annual report.
30 INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
premiums in accordance with the varying risks of
unemployment present in different cases), we have
in the Leipsic scheme, which was started in March
1905, an experiment of great interest, but which,
both because of the extreme shortness of the
experience gained and of the absence of available
information upon important points, is of no
practical value for present purposes.
Ghent
Under the Ghent scheme, first established in
1901 and reorganized in 1904, a system of assistance
to unemployed workpeople is provided, under
which the Ghent Trade Unions are enabled to
increase the unemployed benefit, which they pay
to their members, by receiving from the Munici-
pality a sum equivalent to a certain percentage on
the benefits which they pay. 1 What shall be the
ratio, which the Municipal subvention shall bear
to the trade union benefit, is settled each month
by the Managing Committee of the Fund, but
this subvention must not exceed 100 per cent, of
the trade union benefit, cannot in any case be
1 It was hoped, that the grant of these Municipal subsidies
would afford a stimulus to the development of trade union
insurance against unemployment ; but according to Dr. Leo,
of the German Labour Department, this hope has not been
realized (see his article in Bulletin du Comiti Permanent
des Congres Internationalize des Assurances Soc tales, January-
April 1908, p. 38).
VOLUNTARY INSURANCE 31
more than g\d. per day per man, and can only be
paid for sixty days at most in any one year.
Other Belgian Municipalities, etc.
A system virtually identical with that in force at
Ghent is in operation in 26 other Belgian Munici-
palities. These 27 towns in 1907 paid in all to
284 trade unions subventions amounting to 2,96$.
This amount, which was distributed among 9,750
unemployed persons in respect of an aggregate of
113,726 days of unemployment, was equivalent to
46 per cent, of the total sum paid as unemployed
benefit by the trade unions themselves. Out of the
total number of 113,726 days of unemployment, in
respect of which these Municipal subsidies were
paid, 22,191 occurred in the group of occupations
classed as "industries of art and precision," 17,454
in the textile trades, 16,004 m tne metal trades,
and 14,290 in the building trades, and 10,663 in
tobacco manufacture.
In regard to workpeople not belonging to trade
unions, various attempts have been made in Belgium
to confer upon these people benefits similar in their
nature to those provided by the Ghent system
described above. But these attempts (none of
which are in the nature of insurance) have not
produced any but the most insignificant results.
The Belgian Provinces of Antwerp, Brabant,
Flandre Orientale, Hainaut, Lie"ge and Namur
also make annual grants, mostly of insignificant
32 INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
amount, for the encouragement of insurance against
unemployment, the greater part of which is paid by
way of subsidy to trade unions.
Belgian State Siibvention
In the Budget for 1908 the Belgian Legislature
included in the amount allotted to the Ministry of
Industry and Labour a sum of ;8oo as a grant in
aid of (a) Labour Registries available free of
charge for the use of workpeople seeking employ-
ment, and (b) thrift and other Funds, by means of
which provision is made against the distress caused
by involuntary unemployment. According to the
information, which the General Director of the
Belgian Labour Department has been so good as
to furnish to the present writer, one-half of this
amount (4.00) is intended to be devoted to the
latter purpose. Writing on November 28, 1908,
M. Dubois observes, that " the only institutions of
this nature, which, up to now, have been admitted
to share in these State subsidies are :
(1) The Communal Unemployment Insurance
Funds ;
(2) The Unemployment Insurance Funds affili-
ated to these Communal Funds ;
(3) The legally recognized trade associations,
which maintain a Fund for insurance against
involuntary employment, and which are
not affiliated to Communal Unemployment
Insurance Funds."
The manner, in which these State subsidies are
VOLUNTARY INSURANCE 33
to be distributed between the various Communal
Unemployment Insurance Funds and the several
Unemployment Insurance Funds affiliated to these
Communal Funds, is explained in Circulars of the
Ministry of Industry and Labour, dated August 27,
1908, and November 25, 1908.
Communal Unemployment Insurance Funds,
which grant subsidies to unemployed persons, who,
either individually or collectively, make savings in
order to meet the necessities arising out of involun-
tary unemployment, will, once in every six months,
receive from the Ministry subventions, the amount
of which will be proportionate to the aggregate of
the sums which such Funds shall have expended
for this purpose during the preceding half-year.
These subventions are intended to be used, in
the future, by the recipient Funds for similar
objects.
The conditions, which the Funds carrying out
insurance against unemployment must fulfill, in
order to be entitled to participate in the Belgian
State subvention are as follows :
(a) Such funds must keep a distinct set of
accounts in relation to, and must have in force
special rules for the administration of the arrange-
ments for allotting to their members compensation
in the event of involuntary unemployment.
(fr) They must address to the Ministry, in
advance, a formal application for these grants.
(c) The grants will take the form of additions by
way of supplement to the compensation allotted
34 INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
to their unemployed members by those Funds,
whose applications shall have been granted.
These supplements will be calculated on the basis
of a maximum rate of compensation equivalent to
<}\d. per person per day, and will not be paid in
respect of any one unemployed person for any
longer period than sixty days in any one year.
The amount of such supplements will be deter-
mined by the ratio, which the aggregate of the
sums payable by way of compensation and in
respect of which supplements shall be due, shall
bear to the total amount available for distribution.
(d) The Communal Funds shall once in every
six months furnish to the Ministry all such
information as shall be necessary in order to enable
the Ministry to determine the amount payable in
respect of the State supplements to each Fund in
relation to the half-year just expired.
(e] Once in every six months the amount due in
respect of the State subvention to each Fund shall
be fixed upon the basis of the operations of the
half-year just expired, and such amount shall be
forwarded to such Fund by the Ministry.
Each Communal Unemployment Fund shall
receive a notification of the amounts allotted in
manner aforesaid to the different Unemployment
Insurance Funds affiliated to such Communal Fund.
The Minister of Industry and Labour adds, that
in order that, by knowing as much as possible as
soon as possible about the actual facts, he may
have data enabling him to frame his future course
VOLUNTARY INSURANCE 35
of action in relation to the distribution of the State
subvention, and also in order, that, at this period
of industrial crisis, the Unemployment Insurance
Funds shall receive, with the smallest possible
delay, the assistance that is to be provided for them,
he has determined that in 1908 by way of excep-
tion the entire amount of the credit voted in
respect of this subvention shall be distributed at the
end of the first half-year, on the basis of the
operations of the six months in question. 1
Milan
The Milan scheme, established in 1905, is a fairly
close copy of the Ghent system ; but in this case
the subsidy to the trade unions is granted, not by
the Municipality, but by a Philanthropic Associa-
tion. This scheme provided that the subsidy of
the " Humanitarian Society " should be at the rate
of 50 per cent, of the trade union benefit, but must
not exceed 4f d. per day and should not be payable
if the trade union benefit by itself was in excess of
\s. 2,\d. per day, nor for a longer period than sixty
days in any one year. The number of persons
insured with this Fund in May 1908 was 11,264
workmen and workwomen engaged in various
skilled trades, the trade which is by far the most
largely represented being the printing trade. But
the available details with respect to the brief
1 See Revue du Travail (the organ of the Belgian Labour
Department), October 15, 1908, pp. 1054, 1055 ; November
30, 1908, pp. 1207, 1208.
36 INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
experience gained in the working of this fund are
not sufficient to form the basis of comment here.
Sir ass burg
At the end of December 1906, the Municipal
Council of Strassburg voted the adoption of a
scheme of insurance against unemployment for
that city, the operation of which commenced on
January I, 1907. The rules of this scheme are,
speaking generally, on the lines of that in force at
Ghent. They provide for the grant, out of a sum
voted by the Municipality, of a supplement at the
rate of 50 per cent, on the unemployed benefit
paid to its members by trade associations (in
practice, trade unions) ; but this supplement can
be claimed only by persons, who have resided at
Strassburg for at least one year. Every trade
union receiving the advantage of this scheme is
required to administer its Unemployed Fund
separately from its other operations.
The Rules of the Strassburg scheme provide
that "the Municipal supplement shall cease to be
paid, if the unemployed person is referred to
suitable work in his own trade. Single persons are
required to take work offered to them whether in
Strassburg or away from that city, save under
exceptional circumstances."
In order to verify the fact of their being
unemployed, all insured persons, who are out of
work, are required by the Rules to report them-
selves daily at the Municipal Labour Exchange.
VOLUNTARY INSURANCE 37
As is shown by the Report of the working of this
scheme for 1907, the unemployed "were ordered
to report themselves at the Labour Exchange, not
at the same hour each day, but at a time frequently
varied, and not always in working hours, in order
to prevent them, as far as possible, from being at
work while claiming to be unemployed " ; in some
cases men were required to report themselves as
often as thrice in the day. 1
The sum voted by the Strassburg Municipality
for the first year was 250; but, in fact, of this
sum only .94 was actually expended in paying
these subsidies in the course of 1907. The aggre-
gate membership of the twenty trade unions
affiliated under this scheme at the beginning of 1908
was 3,867 ; practically all of the insured were work-
people engaged in various skilled trades. The
number of the unemployed members, who, during
1907 received the Municipal subsidy, was 153.
Of the total amount of this subvention, one-half
was received by workpeople engaged in the
printing and bookbinding trades, between one-
fourth and one-fifth by the wood-workers, car-
penters and upholsterers, and about one-sixth by
men engaged in the metal trades.
1 The Report states that " in spite of this thorough verifi-
cation, it is, of course, impossible to prevent or discover all
purely occasional work done by men who report themselves
as being unemployed. For instance, it was only by accident
that the discovery was made, that a joiner, who had become
unemployed, at one time assisted in removing goods, and at
another time helped at the market, being hired by the hour."
38 INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
The Report for the year 1907 states, that the
total number of working-men at Strassburg is
about 24,000; as to that of the workwomen no
recent statistics are available. It will be seen, that
the new Unemployment Insurance scheme has not
as yet succeeded in covering more that a quite
inconsiderable part of the field.
In the Report of the scheme already referred to
it is stated that " the modified Ghent system
adopted at Strassburg comprises only a fraction of
the skilled workpeople, the organized workers, and
at present this is only a quite small fraction " ;
that the Insurance scheme is not intended to deal
in any way with "the 2,000-3,000 day labourers,
navvies and other unskilled workpeople " of Strass-
burg, and that in fact "the entire army of the
unskilled is excluded" from the operation of the
scheme.
The Rules governing the operation of the Strass-
burg scheme are printed in full in Appendix II,
post, pp. 89-92.
Holland
Within the last few years the practice of en-
couraging insurance against unemployment by
granting, out of Municipal Funds, subsidies by way
of supplement to benefits paid by trade unions has
begun to be adopted in Holland. This has been
done by Amsterdam, Utrecht and Arnhem since
1906, and at Hilversum since 1907, and similar
schemes are now in force or about to be put into
VOLUNTARY INSURANCE 39
operation also at Zaandam, the Hague, Amersfoort,
Leyden, Haarlem, Dordrecht, Zeist, Groningen,
Bussum, Delft and Nymegen. These Dutch
schemes were, like that in force at Strassburg,
modelled upon the Ghent system, and may,
speaking generally, be stated to resemble the
Strassburg scheme so closely, that detailed de-
scription of their provisions is not necessary in this
place.
The number of workpeople insured against un-
employment with the trade unions affiliated to the
various Municipal schemes in Holland does not
appear to be, as yet, considerable. Thus, according
to the latest available information (relating to
October 1908, as to Amsterdam, and to November
1908, as to the other places named), the trade
unions, which receive subsidies from the Munici-
pality of Amsterdam, have a membership of 3,640,
while at Arnhem the number is 489 ; at Utrecht,
636 ; at Groningen, 143 ; and at Hilversum, 33 ;
practically the whole of these are skilled work-
people, those engaged in the printing trade, in the
building trades, and in cigar-making predominating,
while a large number of shop assistants are
included.
France
Municipal and Departmental Subsidies
The practice on the part of Local Authorities of
making grants to Funds paying unemployed benefit
has existed in France, though at first only to a
40 INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
very small extent, for some years. The first of the
French Local Authorities to take action of this
nature were those of Dijon and Limoges, in 1896,
followed by Issoudun in 1897 ; by Narbonne and
Amiens, and by the Departments of Aude and
Cher in 1903 ; by Albert, Asnieres, Lunel, Macon,
Lyons, Rheims, Vierzon-ville and Vierzon-village
in 1904 ; by Agen, Castres, Chalons-sur-Marne,
Cherbourg, Roanne, Saint-Junien, and Tarbes, and
the Department of Gard in 1905 ; by Alais, Beziers,
Champigny, Ganges, Montlugon, Neuville-sur-
Saone, La Roche-sur-Yon and La Rochelle, and
the Department of Loire in 1906 ; and by Armen-
tieres, Haubourdin and Roubaix in the early part
of 1908. In 1907, thirty- two Local Authorities
(Communal or Departmental) included in their
budgets as available for this purpose a total sum
of 2,776; but how much of this sum was actually
distributed in subsidies to Unemployment Insur-
ance Funds cannot be stated. (In 1905, 2,222
was voted by eighteen Local Authorities ; but only
seventeen of these authorities actually applied the
amounts voted, expending between them 1,444,
of which the following occupations, in the order
named, received the largest amounts : Printing,
metal trades, and building trades.)
With respect to the conditions, under which these
Municipal subsidies are paid, in those cases, in
which the subsidies granted are on anything like
a considerable scale, the plan adopted is generally
framed on lines approximately identical with those
VOLUNTARY INSURANCE 41
of the Ghent system, i. e., the money is devoted to
paying a supplement to the sums paid as unem-
ployed benefit by trade associations of workpeople,
which appear to be virtually in all cases trade
unions ; but in these cases (a feature not found in
the Ghent scheme) the funds of the trade unions
available for the payment of unemployed benefit
are required to be kept distinct from the general
assets of these organizations.
State Subsidies
When the French budget for the ensuing financial
year was voted in April 1905, the Government
included an amount of 4,400, out of which sub-
sidies might be granted to funds providing for
their members assistance in case of their be-
coming " involuntarily " unemployed, otherwise
than through sickness ; and a similar amount was
voted in the budgets of 1906, 1907, 1908 and 1909.
The Regulations governing the distribution of
these subsidies were set forth in a Presidential
Decree dated September 9, 1905, which was accom-
panied by a Report explaining that the object
aimed at was to supplement the existing system of
local (Communal) subventions by State subsidies
to Funds, whose operations covered areas wider
than local, extending to one or more districts of
France, or to the entire country. This decree was
by similar decrees dated April 20, December 31,
1906, and December 3 and 28, 1908, amended in
certain particulars, and these Regulations are
42 INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
stated here in their final form, as thus amended.
They define the class of Funds, to which this
scheme is to apply, as those Funds, which grant
assistance of the nature just specified to their
members either in the form of ordinary unem-
ployed benefit, or of travelling or migration pay,
and are either
1. Funds, whose members are engaged in
the same or in allied occupations, and the
number of whose " financial " l members (not
being more than three months in arrear with
their contributions) is at least a hundred.
2. Local Funds, also for one trade or a group
of allied trades, having a membership (" finan-
cial ") of at least fifty, provided that these
Funds shall be in receipt of subsidies either
from Communal Authorities or from those of
Departments.
3. Local Funds, operating in Communes of
less than 50,000 inhabitants, whose members
are engaged in diverse occupations, provided
that such Funds shall be in receipt of subsidies
from Communal Authorities, and that they
have a membership (" financial ") of at least
fifty.
4. Funds organized for the purpose of
paying travelling benefit by Federations of
Associations, and supported by lump sum
contributions paid by each of the affiliated
1 /. ., having fulfilled their obligations to the Fund so as
to be entitled to benefit, if they should become unemployed.
VOLUNTARY INSURANCE 43
Associations, provided that the ordinary funds
of such associations are raised by means of
the contributions paid by their members.
In order to be entitled to claim the State subsidy,
a Fund must have been in operation for at least
six months, and must maintain a labour registry
available for the unemployed, free of charge.
The rules of any such Fund must provide that
no one shall be allowed to be, in respect of one
and the same form of benefit, a member of more
than one Fund ; nor shall any one be entitled to
benefit until he shall have been a member of the
Fund for at least six months.
The fact of unemployment is to be verified by
the unemployed member signing the vacant book
at least three times in every week, such signing to
take place within the working hours of the day ;
but some other method of verification, especially
for men travelling in search of work, may be
accepted.
An unemployed member of the Fund is required
to accept any offer of employment in his own trade,
which may be notified to him by the Fund.
In all cases the accounts of the Unemployed
Fund must be kept entirely distinct from those of
any other branches of the activity of the Fund or
Association concerned.
No subsidy shall be paid to any Fund, which
cannot show that in the last six months the total
amount received by it as members' contributions
in respect of unemployment insurance was at least
44 INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
equal to one-third of the total amount paid as
unemployed benefit to members out of employ-
ment. But by way of exception, sums paid by a
Fund out of its reserve funds may be treated (for
the purposes of this provision) as if they had been
paid into it as members' contributions.
The method adopted in the distribution of the
State subsidy is that of refunding to those Unem-
ployed Funds, which are entitled to participate in
this subvention, a certain proportion of the unem-
ployment benefit paid by them out of their own
resources 1 to their members. What this propor-
tion shall be, is decided twice a year (on each
occasion as to the preceding half-year) by the
Government ; but this subvention shall in no case
exceed 20 2 per cent, of the amount paid for such
benefit during the preceding six months by the
Fund itself, except that in the case of a Fund,
whose operations extend to at least three Depart-
ments, and whose membership (" financial ") is not
less than 1,000, this limit is raised to 30 3 per cent.
In the next place, if the unemployed benefit paid
by a Fund is of greater amount than is. J\d. per
day, then no subsidy is to be paid in respect of such
excess (over is. 7\d.}. In the last place, if such
benefit is paid for a longer period than sixty days
1 /.., not counting in any subventions received from Com-
munes or Departments.
2 Increased from 16 to 20 per cent, by the Decree of
December 3, 1908.
8 Increased from 24 to 30 per cent, by the Decree of
December 28, 1908.
VOLUNTARY INSURANCE 45
in any twelve months, then the State subsidy is
payable only in respect of the sum received by an
unemployed member of the Fund in regard to such
period of sixty days. It is also provided, that in
no case shall the State subsidy be claimed if the
amount payable as subsidy for a half-year would
have been less than 8s., or if the total amount of
unemployed benefit paid during a half-year by the
Fund itself shall have been less than 24^.
The Decrees here referred to provide for the
formation in connection with this scheme of an
Unemployment Insurance Funds Commission,
whose duty it is to supervise their execution. This
Commission consists of one member of each of the
two Houses of Parliament, five Government officials,
four representatives of Unemployment Insurance
Funds, and one representative of the Friendly
Societies.
Although, as already stated, the amount voted as
applicable to the payment of subventions in aid of
Unemployment Insurance has in each year been
4,400, and although in each year the rate of these
subsidies has been fixed at the maximum permis-
sible, viz. I6 1 per cent, for the local Funds and 24 z
per cent, in the case of the " federal " Funds (oper-
ating in at least three Departments), yet only a
comparatively small part of this sum has actually
been applied in this manner, viz. in 1905, 1,108 ;
in 1906, 1,700; and in 1907, 1,290.
1 See note 2 at p. 44, ante.
2 See note 3 at p. 44, ante.
46 INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
When we come to examine the details of the
application of these State subventions, two facts
appear to deserve special mention. In the first
place, while all the Funds which have received
these subsidies, except three, are local Funds, these
three exceptions have between them received by
far the largest part of the total amount of the
Government subsidy. In the next place, the
attempt to encourage the formation of general
(diverse trades together) Unemployment Insurance
Funds has been a complete failure.
As to the first point, in 1905, out of the total of
1,108, the two large Federations of the Printers
and of the Engineers together received 667 (60 per
cent.) ; in 1906, out of the total of 1,700 paid by
the State as subsidies to Unemployment Insurance
Funds, no less than 1,327 (78 per cent.) was re-
ceived by the two Federations above mentioned,
and by the Federation of Lithographers ; while in
1907, the Federation of the Printers (with 170 local
unions affiliated to it), the Federation of the
Engineers (comprising 58 local societies), and the
Federation of the Lithographers (composed of 35
local unions) accounted for more than one-half
of the total membership of all the Funds, which
during that year received the subsidies paid by the
French Government ; and out of the total of 1,290
paid in respect of these subsidies, the share taken
by these three powerful organizations was no less
than 877 (68 per cent), and this although, on
account of the prevalence of better conditions
INIVERSITY
VOLUNTARY INSURANCE 47
in the printing and lithography industries, the two
Federations of those trades received in 1907 only
826, as against 1,195 m 1906.
As to the second point above referred to, practi-
cally the whole of the local Funds are composed
of members engaged in similar occupations ; in
addition to these trade societies there are only two
Funds, whose members belong to different trades,
and these are quite insignificant, their aggregate
membership being less than 200.
So far as concerns the number of the workpeople,
who have derived a greater or smaller degree of
advantage from this system of assisting Unemploy-
ment Insurance Funds by State grants, it is to be
observed that, if (excluding the membership of
Funds, which in each year participated during six
months only) we confine ourselves to those, which
were comprised in the operation of this Insurance
Scheme during the whole twelve months, we shall
find that the number of the members of the Funds
thus assisted has risen from 24,233 in 1905, to
34,063 in 1906, and to 34,342 in 1907.
When we proceed to investigate, by means of the
figures given in the last (1907) Report, the extent,
to which each class of labour is represented in these
figures, we shall remark that the only occupational
groups included with a membership exceeding
I, ooo are the " pottery, etc." group, with 1,150
members; the textile industries, with 1,264; the
well-organized metal workers, with 6,584 ; the group
of "commerce, transport, and warehousing," with
48 INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
11,298 members, of whom 8,275 belong to the
Paris Clerks' Trade Union ; and the " polygraphic
industries," the best organized of all French trades,
with 12,162 members.
Proceeding now to examine the extent, to which
each group of trades has actually participated in
the money granted by the State in France for
the encouragement of Unemployment Insurance,
and now excluding (because we are without in-
formation as to the occupations followed in these
cases) both the Funds, which participated during
six months of the year only, and also a very small
number of " mixed " and other very unimportant
Funds, we find that in 1907 (as in preceding years)
the great bulk of the State subvention has fallen to
the share of the very well-organized workers in
the printing and bookbinding trades (67 per cent,
in 1905, 76 per cent, in 1906, 67 per cent, in 1907)
and a fairly substantial proportion to the also well-
organized metal trades (n per cent, in 1905, 13
per cent, in 1906, n per cent, in 1907), while the
less highly skilled trades and the un specialized
labourers do not on the whole appear to have
derived any considerable advantage from the
State subvention. In short, the system established
under this French legislation may, speaking
broadly, be said to have conferred a certain amount
of benefit upon a very small section indeed of the
French working-classes a section consisting, in
the main, of just those members of trade union
organizations, who stand in the least need of
VOLUNTARY INSURANCE 49
assistance, but to have left unaided that very large
class of labour, mainly unskilled and unorganized,
which has to endure the greatest degree of suffering
owing to unemployment.
Norway
In 1906 the Norwegian Legislature passed an
Act dated June 12, 1906, for the establishment of
a system of Unemployment Insurance, assisted by
State and Communal subsidies. This Law, which
came into operation on October I, 1906, and which
is to remain in force until the end of 1911, was
subsequently amended by an Act passed on July
25, 1908. As thus amended, the Norwegian Law
contains provisions of the following nature.
All Norwegian Unemployment Insurance Funds,
which shall fulfill the conditions specified in this
Act, are, upon making request in that behalf,
empowered to obtain an acknowledgment of their
right to receive from the Treasury a refund equiva-
lent to one-third l of the amount paid by them to
such insured persons as are resident in the King-
dom, provided that such persons shall either be
Norwegian citizens, or shall have resided in Norway
during the last five years.
The whole amount of the subsidies here referred
to does not, however, as a rule, fall upon the State ;
for this Law enacts, that two-thirds of the amount
paid by the State in respect of these subsidies is
to be reimbursed to the Treasury by those Local
1 Originally one-fourth, see post, p. 55.
50 INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
Authorities (Municipal or Communal), within the
areas of which such insured persons as receive
these subsidies shall have resided for a continuous
period of six months in the last five years. (By
way of exception, no reimbursement is required
from Local Authorities in respect of persons,
employed either as members of the permanent
staff, or as workmen temporarily taken on, in the
construction of public roads, railways, or similar
works, who have resided within the area of a Local
Authority for the purposes of such employment
only.)
In order to enjoy the advantage of this public
subsidy, an Unemployment Insurance Fund must
fulfill the conditions specified in the Law. Its
accounts relating to its operations in connection
with unemployment insurance must be kept
distinct ; and its assets for the purpose of such
insurance must be kept separate from any other
assets, which it may possess, and in particular, if
the Fund is attached to a Society, from the other
assets of such Society. Its assets for such purpose
may be used exclusively for that object, and may
not be otherwise applied. At least one-half of the
funds at its disposal must arise from contributions
paid into it by its members ; and its rules must
include the following provisions :
(a) No member is to be entitled to receive
benefit unless he shall have been a member of the
Fund for the last six months at least, and shall,
subsequently to the date on which he shall last
VOLUNTARY INSURANCE 51
have reported himself as unemployed, have paid
his contribution to the Fund for at least twenty-six
weeks.
(3) Unemployed pay (other than travelling pay)
shall not be payable in respect of unemployment
lasting less than three days.
(c) The amount of the unemployed pay (not
including travelling pay) shall not exceed one-half
of the average daily wages of the occupation
which the recipient of such pay shall follow.
(d) No one shall be entitled to receive benefit
for a longer period than ninety days in any one year.
(e) Such members of the Fund as may have
become unemployed, shall be required to accept
such work as shall, in the opinion of the Admin-
istration of the Fund, be suitable for them to
undertake.
(/) If and when occasion shall arise necessitating
such action, it shall be permissible, if the ordinary
contributions prove insufficient, to levy extraordin-
ary contributions, and also to reduce the amount
of the daily sums payable as benefit.
(g) No benefit shall be payable in those cases, in
which a member of one Fund is at the same time
a member of another Fund, or in case he shall
receive sick pay from a Sick Fund.
(h) Unemployed, travelling, and migration
benefit are claimable only by able-bodied unem-
ployed, whose unemployment shall be caused
otherwise than through their own act or default.
Unemployment caused by a strike or a lock-out
52 INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
shall not be considered as having been caused
otherwise than through the act or default of the
unemployed concerned.
The Law requires that, in places in which a
Public Labour Exchange exists, the receipt of
unemployed benefits shall be conditional upon the
unemployed having first registered themselves at
such Labour Exchange as applicants for employ-
ment. (An Act for the establishment of a system
of Public Labour Exchanges in Norway was
passed on the same day as the original Unemploy-
ment Insurance Act.)
Specially deserving of attention are the provisions
contained in this Norwegian legislation with the
object of extending the benefits thereby provided
to the unorganized sections of the working-classes.
With this aim in view, the Act requires, that every
Unemployment Insurance Fund, which is attached
to an Association, shall prior to receiving any
refund, grant to any persons, who, not being
members of the Fund, are engaged in the same
trade as its members, permission to effect with the
Fund an insurance upon the same terms as its own
members. But such non-members shall neverthe-
less not possess the right of voting in relation to
the framing of the Rules of the Fund or of taking
part in the administration of its property, save in
cases in which the Association shall otherwise
decide. In addition, in those cases in which the
Association defrays the necessary administration
expenses in relation to the Unemployment Insur-
VOLUNTARY INSURANCE 53
ance Fund, such Fund shall be empowered to
require such non-member insurers to pay, for the
purpose of defraying such expenses, contributions
higher by 10 per cent, than the ordinary contribu-
tions of its members ; or, in the event of such extra
contributions proving insufficient for this purpose,
such additional extra contributions, not exceeding
15 per cent, as shall be approved by the Ministry
charged with the execution of this Act.
But up to the present time the attempt thus
made to secure the organization for the purpose of
insurance against unemployment of the unorganized
workpeople by the trade unions has met with no
success. The official organ of the German Labour
Department in its issue of July 1908, after pointing
out that the Norwegian law had been for over a year
on the statute-book, observes that " nevertheless up
to now there is little to report in the way of results,
and this for the reason that one feature of the Law
has evoked opposition, and in consequence there
has been a temporary standstill in its execution.
The point here referred to is the obligation
imposed by the Law upon the trade unions
of carrying out the insurance of the unorganized
workpeople. Soon after the Law was introduced,
a number of Federations of Trade Unions an-
nounced their readiness to take part in carrying
its provisions into effect. But in the meantime at
the general elections of 1906 the Social Democrat
Members of Parliament induced the great National
Labour Union to approach the Federations affili-
54 INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
ated to this body [a powerful political organization]
with a request that, on account of the provisions of
the Unemployment Insurance Law above referred
to, these Federations should order all the federated
trade unions to abstain from sending in their
adhesion under the Law, or where this had already
been done, to withdraw their adhesion. The
Social Democrat Members of Parliament brought
in an amending Bill, under which they proposed
to repeal section 6 of the Act (the provision
requiring the trade unions to admit non-members
for the purposes of unemployment insurance) ; and
this Bill has recently been thrown out. Conse-
quently, the way is now left clear for the carrying
into execution of this Law. If this takes place
then the benefits to be conferred by the Law will
be enjoyed by the Unemployment Insurance
Funds, which are already maintained by eight
National Federations and five local Trade Unions.
In addition, six other National Federations with
about 27,000 members, have announced that they
desire to establish Unemployment Insurance
Funds. If these intentions shall be carried into
effect, then the number will be increased to 42,000
organized workpeople. Information of a statistical
nature on this subject is up to now not forthcom-
ing " (Reichs-Arbeitsblatt) July 1908, p. 673).
It would appear, although definite information
on this point cannot be obtained, that the 42,000
workpeople here referred to, whose trade unions
either have established or have resolved, if possible,
VOLUNTARY INSURANCE 55
to establish for their members a system of un-
employment insurance, must comprise the great
bulk of the organized workpeople of Norway,
who would thus constitute a little over 7 per
cent, of the total working-class population. 1
It would, however, seem that even after the
failure of this attempt to repeal the provisions of
the Unemployment Insurance Act of 1906, the
Norwegian trade unions still declined to accept the
advantages offered to them by this Law on the
conditions attached thereby to the receipt of the
proposed State and Communal subventions, and
that, not until their demand for an increase in the
amount of these subsidies had been granted by the
Legislature, did these organizations take steps
towards enabling the Act to be carried into effect.
For in a recent number of Sociale Praxis (an
organ of well-known authority in matters of
"social politics") we read, that "in July 1908 the
Norwegian Law was, in accordance with proposals
made by the trade unions, amended by making
the State's subvention one- third, instead of one-
fourth, of the benefits paid. Thereupon the trade
unions declared themselves ready to organize the
system of unemployment insurance in conjunction
1 The latest available figures (published in Correspondenz-
blatt der Generalkommission der Gewerkschaften Deutsch-
landS) May 2, 1908, p. 270) give the number of trade
unionists in Norway on October i, 1907, as 35,814. The
population of Norway in 1907 was 2,321,088, of whom it has
been stated, that approximately 580,000 are persons who
might be members of trade union organizations.
56 INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
with the State and the Communes, and have
entered into negotiations on the subject with the
Ministry of Commerce" (Sociale Praxis, October
22, 1908, col. 95). As is stated in the Labour
Gazette, December 1908, p. 372, the result of
these negotiations is that the Ministry has written
to several of the larger Unemployment Insurance
Funds stating that their right to receive a refund
from the Treasury is, for the present, acknowledged.
" It is understood that the subsidies began to be
paid to these Funds as from November i."
A translation of the Norwegian Unemployment
Insurance Laws is printed in Appendix III, post,
PP- 93-99-
Denmark
In Denmark an Act providing for the establish-
ment of a system of Insurance against Unemploy-
ment assisted by State and Communal subventions
was passed on April 9, 1907. This Law came into
operation in August 1907, and is to be revised in
1912.
Subject to the fulfilment of the conditions laid
down in the Law, all associations of wage-earners
(including agricultural labourers and also clerks,
shop assistants, etc.) engaged either in the same
or in several distinct specified occupations, which,
by means of the receipt of fixed contributions, 1
carry out the mutual insurance of their members
1 In addition to its ordinary members any Unemployment
Fund may admit honorary members, paying contributions,
but not entitled to claim benefits.
VOLUNTARY INSURANCE 57
so as to secure to them benefits payable in the
event of their becoming unemployed, and which
exist for this sole purpose, are empowered to apply
for official recognition, such recognition carrying
with it the right to receive the subventions out of
public moneys authorized by this Act.
The subventions authorized by the Law are,
in the first place, those, which under its provisions
the State undertakes to pay out of the Royal
Exchequer, and, in the next place, those, which
the Local Authorities (Municipal and Communal)
are authorized to grant, if they shall think fit.
The State subvention consists in an annual
subsidy, paid to the Funds annually after the close
of each financial year (ending March 31), which is
equivalent to one-third of the contributions pay-
able by way of premium by the persons insured
with the officially recognized Unemployment
Insurance Societies. The Law provides, that the
total amount of such subsidies shall not exceed
13,889 per annum; but since it is certain that
this amount will prove insufficient, credit has been
taken in the estimates with respect to these sub-
ventions payable in 1909 for the sum of 22,222,
and it is stated that probably a further sum will be
voted in the supplementary estimates.
With respect to the subventions in aid of Unem-
ployment Insurance, which this Act confers power
upon the Local Authorities to grant, the Act
provides, that any Local Authority, within whose
area a member (of an officially recognized Unem-
58 INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
ployment Insurance Fund) has his right of
residence or is entitled to public relief, is
empowered, without having to obtain the sanction
in that behalf of any superior Authority, to pay a
proportion of this member's contribution (premium)
for the current year, which shall not in any case
exceed one-sixth part of such premiums. The
fact, that such part of his premiums shall have
been paid for him under this Act by the Local
Authority, shall not entail upon him those penal-
ties, which are entailed by the receipt of Poor Law
relief. Local Authorities, within whose area
officially recognized Unemployment Insurance
Funds have their chief or branch offices, are
empowered, in this case also without having
to obtain superior sanction, to grant to such Fund
or Funds a subvention, the amount of which,
however, shall not in regard to any Fund exceed
one-sixth of the contributions of such of its mem-
bers as shall have had their right of residence within
such area on the 3ist day of March then last.
Applications by Unemployment Insurance Funds
for official recognition are to be granted upon the
following conditions :
No one can become a member of a Fund, unless
he is a wage-earner qualified to claim assistance
provided by the State through an officially
recognized Sick Fund. 1 The Fund must (save by
1 These are Funds, the total membership of which in 1907
was 552,962, and which in that year received State subven-
tions amounting in the aggregate to ^93,955- For a full
VOLUNTARY INSURANCE 59
special permission of the Minister of the Interior)
have at least fifty members, who must not be under
eighteen or over sixty years of age, and must confine
its operations to one or more specified occupations
(Trade Insurance Funds\ in which case its opera-
tions must either extend to at least one Province
of Denmark, or else its operations must be confined,
irrespective of the occupations followed by its
members, within limits of locality only (Local
Insurance Funds). Funds, whose operations are
confined to specified occupations, are required to
be sub-divided into local branches. (Each such
branch is, in relation to the Communal subsidies
above mentioned, treated as if it were a local fund.)
No person is allowed to be at the same time a
member of more than one officially recognized
Unemployment Insurance Fund, nor, in the event
of his being a member of any such Fund, and at
the same time of one or more non-recognized
Funds, to receive from all such Funds together
daily allowances in case of unemployment, amount-
ing in the aggregate to more than two-thirds of the
average daily wages current in the occupation or
occupations or in the locality, in relation to which
such recognized Fund is established.
In the case of every officially recognized Fund
the amount of the annual premium (including both
the contributions payable by the insured and the
subsidy payable by the State and that, if any,
account of these Funds see Sygekassenloven, 1892-1907, by
Clara Black.
60 INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
granted by Communal authorities) shall be fixed
at such an amount as experience shall have shown
to be sufficient to provide the benefits claimable by
the members of the Fund. In case of necessity,
extraordinary contributions, in addition to the
regular premiums, may be levied by the Fund from
its members.
The benefits, which the Law permits an officially
recognized Fund to pay to its unemployed members,
may take the form of (i) a daily allowance as
unemployed pay, (2) travelling pay, (3) migration
pay, (4) assistance in paying rent, and (5) assistance
in kind. The sum total of all daily allowances
payable in respect of these forms of benefit (not
including travelling or migration pay) must not
exceed in the case of Trade Insurance Funds, two-
thirds of the average daily wages current in the
occupation or occupations, or, in the case of Local
Insurance Funds, two-thirds of the common daily
wages of labour current in the locality, in relation
to which the Fund, of which the recipient is a
member, is established ; but in either case the
amount of such benefits must not be less than 6%d.
nor more than 2s. 2%d. per day.
In addition, it is provided that, if a member of an
Unemployment Insurance Fund, who is entitled, by
reason of his being unemployed, to receive any such
benefit as above mentioned, shall accept employ-
ment (either found for him by the Administration of
the Fund, or obtained by his own search for work),
the wages for which amount to a smaller sum than
VOLUNTARY INSURANCE 61
the maximum benefits payable under the Law, then
the Fund in question is empowered to pay to this
man the difference between what he actually earns
in wages for this work, and what he would have got
had he been in receipt of such maximum benefits.
No officially recognized Fund is allowed to pay
any unemployed benefit during the continuance of a
strike or lock-out to any persons taking part in the
dispute, nor may such benefit be paid to any mem-
ber, whose unemployment is caused by illness or
incapacity to perform labour, so long as such illness
or incapacity shall continue, or to any member,
whose unemployment is caused by his having,
without adequate cause, thrown up his existing
employment, or by his excessive consumption of
alcohol, or by his quarrelsomeness displayed
either towards his employer or towards his fellow-
workmen, or who refuses to take up work suited to
his capacity, which may be offered to him through
the Administration of the Fund.
No one is entitled to claim any benefit unless he
shall have been a member of the Fund concerned
for at least twelve months, and shall have paid up
his contributions to such Fund.
No unemployed benefit is in any case to be paid
for the first six days of unemployment ; and this
" waiting time " may, by the rules of any Fund, be
made longer, but not exceeding fifteen days as a
maximum. But this provision does not apply in
cases, in which the only benefit paid by a Fund is
travelling pay.
62 INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
With respect, however, to Funds, among whose
members are included workers in season trades,
the Ministry of the Interior is empowered to issue
an Order authorizing the Funds altogether to with-
hold the payment of benefit during any specified
parts of the year (either in regard to the whole of
the members of the Fund, or to the particular
seasonal workers concerned, as the case may be)
unless their unemployment shall have lasted more
than fifteen days ; and in this case the number of
waiting days is fixed specially.
The amount received as travelling pay by any
member of a Fund must not exceed the amount
fixed by its rules as the maximum amount receiv-
able as daily allowances within a period of twelve
successive months.
With respect to the maximum amount of benefit,
which an unemployed member shall be allowed to
receive within any period of twelve successive
months, the rules of an officially recognized Fund
shall fix this in such a manner, that this amount
shall be equivalent to at least seventy times the daily
allowance payable in respect of unemployed benefit.
By way of exception only, the Ministry may
authorize a Fund to fix this maximum at fifty
times the daily allowance only, but if so, that
allowance must not be less than lod. per day.
If for three years in succession a member shall
have drawn the maximum benefits, then he shall
not be entitled to receive any further benefit until
he shall have been a member of, and paid up his
contribution to the Fund for a full financial year.
VOLUNTARY INSURANCE 63
Every Unemployment Insurance Fund must, as
a condition of enjoying official recognition, keep
its receipts and property received and held for the
purpose of unemployment insurance absolutely
distinct from its other assets, and shall apply such
receipts and property for that purpose alone.
With respect to the question of the inclusion
within the Danish Unemployment Insurance
scheme of the unorganized workpeople, it should
be noted, that in Denmark this question is likely
to cause a smaller degree of practical difficulty
than in most countries. For in no nation in the
world is the proportion of the working-classes, who
are members of trade unions, so large as in Den-
mark, where it is estimated to be between 40 and
50 per cent. 1 The manner, in which this matter is
dealt with by the Danish Law, is by providing that
admission into an officially recognized Unemploy-
ment Insurance Fund, as a full member (entitled
to benefit) of such Fund, cannot be refused to any
person, if he shall fulfill the conditions specified in
the Law (see ante, p. 58), and if he shall follow the
occupation or occupations, or shall reside within the
locality in relation to which the Fund has been
established.
At the same time, although the inclusion of non-
1 Dr. Zacher, the head of the German Labour Department,
has estimated the total working-class population of Denmark
at 200,000 (Die Arbeiterversicherung in Danemark, 1903, pp.
40, 41). The membership of all the Danish trade unions
together at the end of 1907 was 90,000 (Sociale Praxis , April
9, 1908, col. 745).
64 INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
unionists is provided for by the section just cited,
every Fund is left at liberty to exercise a reasonable
discretion with regard to the persons whom it
shall admit to membership, and is accordingly
allowed to reject persons, who, whether from physi-
cal or moral defects, appear unlikely to obtain and
keep regular employment, or to remain on good
terms with the foremen under whom, or the fellow-
workmen with whom they work ; and a similar
discretionary power is given to the Administration
of the Fund as to expelling persons who, after
being admitted to membership, are found to labour
under the disqualifications just mentioned.
The supervision of the working of this Insurance
scheme, as a whole, is entrusted to an officer
termed " Inspector of Unemployment." In addi-
tion, the working of the scheme is submitted to an
annual meeting of representatives of the various
Funds, the Inspector of Unemployment presiding
over its deliberations. This meeting has to appoint
an Executive Committee of six members, this body
also being presided over by the Inspector. To
this Committee important duties are entrusted.
In the first place it acts as a Court of Appeal, in
regard, for example, to a decision of the Adminis-
tration of a Fund excluding a person from member-
ship as disqualified through one or other of the
causes mentioned above, and as to cases, in which
the authorities administering a Fund refuse to
pay benefit to one of its members, because he is
found to be a man on strike or locked -out. From
the judgments given by this Committee in such
VOLUNTARY INSURANCE 65
cases an appeal lies to the Minister of the
Interior.
It is also provided, that, if in any case this Com-
mittee shall be of opinion that any officially
recognized Unemployment Insurance Fund, with-
out actually infringing any of the provisions of the
Law, nevertheless acts in relation either to its own
members or to other Unemployment Insurance
Funds in such a manner as to cause prejudice to
the Unemployment Insurance system as a whole,
then it shall be the duty of the Inspector of
Unemployment to make a report on the subject to
the Minister of the Interior, in which he shall advise,
whether it is desirable that the official recognition
accorded to the Fund in question shall be cancelled.
As already mentioned, the Danish Unemploy-
ment Insurance Law came into operation in
August 1907. From a Report by Mr. Soerensen, the
Inspector of Unemployment, presented to the
International Congress on Workmen's Insurance
held at Rome in October 1908, it appears, that
between that date and the end of the first financial
year (March 31, 1908), 34 Funds received official
recognition under the Law, and that subsequently
(up to the date of this Report) 3 more Funds were
recognized. Out of these 37 Funds, 36 are Trade
Funds (their membership being confined to particu-
lar trades), and I only is a Local Fund (comprising
various occupations within a specified area). All
of the 36 Trade Funds except 3 are national, i. e. t
cover by means of their various branches the whole
of Denmark ; the three exceptions cover only the
66 INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
island of Seeland (on which are situated Copen-
hagen and about twenty smaller towns and villages)
and the neighbouring islands. The area covered
by the one Local Fund is three rural Communes
in Seeland.
The occupations and areas covered by the 36
Trade Insurance Funds and their membership at
the date when they respectively received recognition
are shown below :
Date of
official
recognition.
Name of Fund.
Area
covered.
Number of
members
at date of
recognition.
Sept. i, 1907.
Coopers.
Bakers and Confectioners.
Denmark.
680
I i95
})
Wood-workers.
1,900
Builders' Labourers.
Seeland.
tjao
Oct. ", 1907.
Paviors.
Denmark.
130
Cork-workers.
190
H
Textile operatives.
!
3>5o
Cabinet-makers.
6,400
" t
Moulders.
t
1,400
Printers.
'
3,200
,i
Boot and Shoe-makers.
2,500
Millers.
'
45
H
Day Labourers.
20,000
Brush-makers.
Seeland.
160
Nov. 1907.
Carpenters.
Denmark.
4,000
Saddlers and Upholsterers.
Tobacco-workers (chewing tobacco).
1,000
335
Bookbinders.
75
Printers on metal.
65
Hat-makers.
140
Stokers.
1,160
Dec. 1907.
Sugar Workers, Chocolate and
ii
90
Biscuit-makers.
Metal Founders.
360
Bricklayers.
||
4,000
Jan. 1908.
Tanners.
200
Workers in iron and other metals.
9,800
Polishers of iron and other metals.
80
Sculptors.
"
130
Tobacco-workers.
3,880
Feb. 1908.
Stone-cutters (marble and granite).
S tucco- workers.
Seeland.
Denmark.
90
140
Lithographers, etc.
M
300
Glove-makers.
IOO
Turners.
320
April T, 1908
Butchers, Sausage-makers, etc.
Ship Carpenters.
1,250
350
Total 72,600
VOLUNTARY INSURANCE 67
It will be seen that these 36 Trade Funds have
an aggregate membership of 72,600, and that among
their members are included not alone the work-
people engaged in a great variety of skilled trades,
but also a very large number of less specialized
forms of labour (day labourers, 20,000 ; builders'
labourers, 1,600).
Out of the total of 37 Funds (36 Trade and I
Local) here referred to, 34 are Funds attached to
trade unions, which had established these Funds
before the Law came into operation. The remain-
ing 3 Funds, being formed after the Law came into
force, could not, owing to the conditions laid down
in the Law and mentioned above, begin to pay
benefits during the first financial year 1907-8 (see
ante, p. 61 ; also post, p. 70, note).
According to information, which Mr. Soerensen
has been good enough to furnish, the amount ->aid
by the State in respect of the subvention tc the
officially recognized Unemployment Insurance
Funds (payable under the Unemployment Insur-
ance Law) in respect of so much of the financial
year 1907-8 as elapsed between September i, 1907,
when the first of these Funds received recognition,
and the end of that year (March 31, 1908) was
8,338.
The Inspector of Unemployment also reports
that on November 15, 1908, the number of officially
recognized Unemployment Insurance Funds was
41. Of these only one is Local, the other 40 being
Trade Funds, of which 37 cover the whole of
68 INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
Denmark and 3 cover only part of the Kingdom
(Seeland). The total number of persons insured
against unemployment with these 41 Funds is
77,000. So far as can be ascertained, the
organization of all these Funds is of a trade
union character.
With regard to the subventions, which the
Law empowers the Danish Local Authorities
(Municipal and Communal) to grant as subsidies
to Unemployment Insurance Funds, although it is
known that a good deal has already been done in
this direction, the Municipality of Copenhagen, for
example, having voted 2,778 by way of subvention
for the year ipoS, 1 full particulars as to all that
has been done are not at present available. But
from information given by the Danish newspaper
Politiken in its issue of November 18, 1908, it
would appear, that the question of these subven-
tions is still, to a great extent, unsettled. For on
November 17, 1908, a meeting of the Association
of Danish Local Authorities, at which 24 mayors
and other representatives of various Local Authori-
ties attended, was held at Copenhagen, at which
the whole subject was discussed. At this meeting
the Inspector of Unemployment delivered an
address, in which he endeavoured to remove the
doubts, which were felt as to the position of
the Local Authorities in regard to this matter.
1 This information is given by the Politiken of November
20, 1908 ; that newspaper states, that this Municipal grant
will probably be increased in 1909 to ,7,222.
VOLUNTARY INSURANCE 69
In order to remove these doubts, an official
circular had been sent to the different Local
Authorities, and the Inspector took this opportunity
of adding his verbal explanations. In the course
of his address Mr. Soerensen deprecated the idea
of paying these subsidies directly into the hands of
unemployed workpeople, on the ground that, if
this were done, no certainty could be felt that the
money would be used for the objects for which it
was intended. A long debate followed, in which
the principal subject of discussion was, whether the
proper course to pursue would be to grant to the
various Unemployment Insurance Funds the maxi-
mum subvention allowed by the Law. Several
representatives, while in favour of the adoption of
this course, expressed the opinion, that it would
have been better if the State had dealt with the
question of subsidizing Unemployment Insurance
itself and exclusively out of its own resources,
without leaving any part of the subsidies to be
provided by the Local Authorities. A representa-
tive then proposed a resolution to the effect, that
the Local Authorities should grant the maximum
subventions. It was urged by another speaker,
that the amount of the subvention in each case
ought properly to be made to depend upon the
financial situation of the particular Authority con-
cerned. But the resolution to grant the maximum
subventions was carried by 13 votes to i, a number
of the representatives present abstaining from
voting either way.
70 INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
As to the extent to which it will ultimately be
found possible to secure the benefits provided by
the Law for the unorganized workmen, this remains
to be seen. Writing to the author on December
I, 1908, Mr. Cordt Trap, the Director of the Stat-
istical Office of the Municipality of Copenhagen,
states, that it must be assumed that the members
of the Unemployment Funds, which up to that
date had received official recognition under the
Law, were all trade unionists.
A translation of the Danish Unemployment
Insurance Law is printed in Part I of Appendix IV
(post, pp. 1 00- 1 1 1) 1 , while in Part II of that Appen-
dix (post, pp. 112-125) will De found a translation of
the Model Rules for an Unemployment Insurance
1 A law of May 27, 1908 (of which, since it is only of
temporary interest, it has not seemed necessary to give a
translation), provides, that any Unemployment Insurance
Fund, which received official' recognition in the course of the
financial year 1907-8, but which had not at the date, when
the principal enactment came into operation, existed for
twelve months, should, notwithstanding the provisions of
that enactment, be entitled to pay benefits to such persons
as were already members of the Fund when it received
recognition, provided that it should be shown to the satisfac-
tion of the Inspector of Unemployment, that such Fund was
in possession of means adequate to enable it to commence
paying benefits in accordance with its rules. Local authori-
ties were empowered, at any time within the financial year
in question, to grant to any such Fund an extra subvention
in excess of the maximum specified in the original Law ;
and the Minister of the Interior was empowered to make to
any such Fund an advance by way of prepayment of the
subvention of the State for the current year.
VOLUNTARY INSURANCE 71
Fund enjoying official recognition, and the conse-
quent right to claim the public subsidies contem-
plated by this Law. These Model Rules, as has
been stated by Mr. Soerensen in his Report to the
Rome Congress already referred to, were drawn
up by the Minister of the Interior and the In-
spector of Unemployment in consultation with a
Committee appointed by the Central Federation of
Danish Trade Unions ; and " the result of this colla-
boration has been, that all the officially recognized
Unemployment Insurance Funds have adopted,
almost in their entirety, the provisions contained
in these Model Rules, with such modifications as
were rendered necessary by the different forms of
benefit paid by the different Funds, and the more
or less simplified method obtaining in their
administration in each case."
Appendix V (post, pp. 126-129) contains a
concise list of principal publications dealing with
the subject of Unemployment Insurance in all
countries.
CHAPTER IV
CONCLUSIONS
THE various forms, in which insurance against
unemployment assisted by subventions paid out of
public moneys has been established in different
Continental countries, having been described, it
remains for those interested in this subject to
consider, in the first place, whether it is advisable
and practicable for this country to adopt some
method of Unemployment Insurance, and, in the
second place, what should be the lines, upon
which, if it should be determined to introduce in
the United Kingdom a system of insurance of this
nature, it would appear desirable to frame the
scheme under which this system shall be carried
out. The first of these two questions it is not
proposed to discuss here. With respect to the
second question, it is submitted, that the system to
be adopted should follow fairly closely the legisla-
tion enacted in Norway and Denmark, that is to say,
(i) that the resources at the disposal of Funds main-
tained by the contributions of workpeople associated
together for the purpose of enabling their members, if
they become unemployed, to draw benefits on an
agreed scale should be supplemented out of public
72
CONCLUSIONS 73
moneys, the Funds to be thus subsidized being so far
as possible, organized separately for separate trades or
groups of allied trades, and (2) that these arrange-
ments should possess a national (inter-local) character.
It also appears desirable, (3) that any scheme of
publicly assisted unemployment insurance should be
operated in close connection with an efficiently organ-
ized system of Labour Registries.
The reasons for the conclusions just stated are,
briefly, of the following nature :
I. THE SYSTEM MUST BE ORGANIZED PER
TRADE
When it is submitted that the system of (assisted)
insurance against unemployment, the establish-
ment of which is now under consideration, should
be one, under which the public subventions shall
be paid for the supplementation of the benefits
provided by trade associations that is to say,
associations each of which is composed of members
engaged in the same trade or in one or other of a
group of allied trades the reasons for this conten-
tion are of a twofold nature.
In the first place, it is abundantly clear that the
alternative plan that of a general Insurance Fund
for all trades together must tend to drive away
the better class of insurers, the " good lives " who,
under any well-devised system of insurance, pay
for the " bad lives." It is obvious, that a workman
engaged in a trade, in which the risk of unemploy-
74 INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
ment is small, will be strongly disinclined to
insure himself against unemployment with an
Insurance Fund, with which are similarly insured,
simultaneously and upon equal terms, a more or
less considerable number of persons engaged in
trades, in which a very large probability of unem-
ployment exists. But any scheme of insurance,
under which all or most of the insurers are
relatively " bad lives," is foredoomed to failure.
It is, of course, possible to establish a general
Fund for the insurance of workpeople in all trades
together, and to charge different rates of premium,
e.g., to railway servants, who suffer comparatively
little from unemployment, and to builders'
labourers, who are often out of work. But the
establishment of premium rates, which shall at
once correspond with the actual risk in each case
and at the same time not give rise to a great deal
of dissatisfaction, would be found to be a task, the
performance of which would inevitably involve the
authorities called upon to administer a scheme of
unemployment insurance subsidized by public
grants in very serious difficulties.
In the second place, the trade association method
of insurance tends to reduce the chances of fraud
the " simulation " of unemployment by men, who,
during the whole or part of the time during which
they are drawing unemployed pay, are, in fact,
earning money by their labour. For since men in
the same trade know a good deal about the move-
ments and occupations of each other, a trade
CONCLUSIONS 75
association, which insures its members against
unemployment, is in many cases in a fairly good
position for ascertaining the true facts ; and of
course every such association has in all cases a
direct incentive to prevent, so far as lies in its
power, the receipt of unemployed benefit by a
fraudulent claimant.
At the same time, in considering the rival merits
of general insurance (for all trades together) on the
one hand, and trade association insurance on the
other, it must be borne in mind, that trade associa-
tions carrying out this business of insurance already
exist, and command to a large extent the confi-
dence of the working-classes ; and it is at any rate
beyond question, that any scheme of assisted
unemployment insurance, under which it should be
proposed, that the public subvention should be
granted upon terms, which would involve a railway
servant, for example, in the necessity (if he wished
to secure the benefit of this subvention) of either
paying two sets of premiums (i. e., his weekly pay-
ments to the Amalgamated Society of Railway
Servants, and also his contributions to a subsi-
dized all-trades-together Unemployment Insurance
Fund) or throwing up his membership in his
trade union, would incur the irreconcilable
hostility of the members of our trade union organ-
izations, and provoke much unfriendly criticism on
the part of a numerous section of the community.
76 INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
II. THE SYSTEM MUST BE NATIONAL
The next point, to which it is proper to call
attention, is the serious defects, which, in this
country at any rate, would be present in any
scheme of unemployment insurance, which, like
the Ghent, the Strassburg, and other Continental
schemes, was of a local, as distinguished from a
national nature. In the first place, since one
principal object, which those, who advocate the
development by means of grants of public money
of insurance against unemployment, consider it
possible to achieve, is the encouragement of this
form of thrift on the part of the working-classes,
any scheme of this kind not framed upon lines
fully inter-local (i. <?., upon national lines) will, in
the United Kingdom, meet with serious difficulty
in the achievement of this object, owing to the
fact, that (unlike the great majority of the Belgian
and the French trade unions) most of our British
trade union organizations (including the most
important among them) are not local, but national
organizations. Take, for example, the Amalgam-
ated Society of Engineers, with its six hundred
and odd branches spread all over the United
Kingdom (and indeed all over the British Empire,
and in the United States); can it be supposed,
that, if a dozen, or even a score of Municipalities
in the United Kingdom shall offer to pay to such
of the members of this great Society as may
CONCLUSIONS 77
happen to belong to its branches in these various
cities, sixpence for every shilling paid to these
men as unemployed benefit by the A.S.E., then
this Society will in consequence, be induced to
augment its existing scale of unemployed benefit,
and arrange in future to levy from all its members
in all its branches such additional contributions as
may be necessary to enable the Society to increase
its unemployed pay from ten shillings to, say,
twelve shillings a week ?
If, to take another instance, the Municipalities of
London, Liverpool, Manchester, and even twenty
or thirty other British towns, should, by offering to
pay sixpence for every shilling paid as unemployed
benefit by the trade union to its members resident
in these localities, try to tempt the National
Association of Operative Plasterers, which now
pays no unemployed benefit at all (but only a
small sum as travelling pay), to commence levying
extra contributions from all its members in all
its branches (nearly two hundred in number) in
order to be able in the future to pay unemployed
benefit, can it seriously be supposed, that this
attempt would succeed ? 1
1 It would of course be possible for the branches in the
particular towns concerned to start a local unemployed
benefit, receiving for that purpose an extra weekly contribu-
tion. But, in almost every case the payment of such
contributions would, under the rules of the trade union, be
voluntary ; consequently, only those members, who were
most often out of work, would insure themselves in this
manner, and this local Fund would soon be bankrupt.
78 INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
Another grave defect of any merely local system
of assisted unemployment insurance is to be found
in the fact that, of necessity, any such system offers
a serious impediment to the complete mobility of
labour. Supposing that a workman insured against
unemployment with the Berne Municipal Unem-
ployment Fund, and for whom no efforts of the
Berne Labour Exchange can succeed in obtaining
employment in that city, is offered employment at
Lausanne (where no such system of Unemployment
Insurance is in operation), will this man not be
reluctant to throw away (by leaving Berne) all the
advantage, which he had gained by paying in to
the Berne Fund regularly for at least eight months,
and possibly much longer, the premiums exacted
under its rules ? In the same manner the German
schemes in force at Cologne and Strassburg (since
under the rules of these schemes no man is allowed
to claim unemployed pay plus the Municipal sub-
sidy unless he can show that he has resided in the
town for at least one year) must be perceived to
accord a specific premium on permanence of
residence, and of necessity to entail upon the man,
who moves from one place to another in order to
obtain employment, a distinct pecuniary sacrifice.
Nor, again, is the matter different in those cases,
in which a subsidy in aid of insurance against
unemployment is granted to Funds of a merely
local character, not by a Municipality, but by the
Central Government. Thus, in France, if a work-
man insured with one of the local Insurance Funds
CONCLUSIONS 79
subsidized by the State is offered employment in
another town, then, even if there should happen to
be in operation in that place an Unemployment
Insurance Fund, in which this man can enrol him-
self, he will enter it as a new member, and will
have to wait six months or longer before he is
again in a position to claim benefit if he loses his
employment.
In this connection it is worthy of remark, that in
Denmark (where, as in this country, the organiza-
tions of workpeople are, for the most part, national,
rather than local in character) the importance of
maintaining the inter-local character of Unemploy-
ment Insurance has not escaped attention. For
the special Unemployment Insurance Committee,
established to supervise the execution of the Law
in relation to State and Municipal subventions to
Unemployment Insurance Funds, is, by that Law,
specifically directed to " act as a link between the
different Funds," and to "draw up proposals for
co-operation between them, including a proposal
for facilitating the transference of members from
one Fund to another," and also (no doubt in order
to make this suggested interchangeability of mem-
bership easier to carry out) " as far as possible, to
secure uniformity in the rules of the Funds with
respect to the benefits payable" (see Section 18 of
the Law at p. 109, post, and Rule 14 in Appendix
IV, post, p. 1 1 8).
It is submitted that, if any system of publicly
assisted Unemployment Insurance is to attain a
8o INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
full measure of success, care must be taken to
ensure, that this system shall, so far as possible,
cover the whole country, so that a working-man
insured under this scheme shall not, in the absence
of inter-local arrangements, be discouraged from
removing from a place, where his labour is not
wanted, to another place, where his services are
required. So far as the organizations, to which
the public subventions would be given, were of a
national character, no difficulty on this point would
arise. With respect, however, to organizations,
whose operations are confined to particular locali-
ties, the grant of the public subvention should be
made conditional upon the consent of the local
Fund in each case to permit, upon reasonable
terms, a transference of membership whenever a
workman insured with another similar institution
may, in consequence of receiving an offer of
employment, remove to the locality covered by
the operations of the Fund in question.
III. THE SYSTEM MUST OPERATE IN
CONNECTION WITH LABOUR REGISTRIES
The universal experience gained in the working
of the Continental schemes of unemployment
insurance points to the conclusion, that the suc-
cessful operation of any such scheme is greatly
facilitated, if a very close connection is maintained
between the Insurance Funds and some systematic
agencies for securing employment in the nature of
CONCLUSIONS 8 1
a Labour Registry. On the one hand, such a
registry is most useful as a means of preventing
the " simulation " of unemployment ; for it is
usual to require those members of the Unemploy-
ment Insurance Funds, who allege that they are
unable to obtain work, to prove the fact of their
unemployment by reporting themselves, during
the ordinary working hours, at the Labour Registry.
On the other hand, it is obviously highly import-
ant in the interests of the finances of the Unem-
ployment Insurance Funds, that, for the purpose
of finding work for their unemployed members in
the speediest possible manner, the fullest use should
at all times be made of the most effective agencies
for securing employment.
APPENDIX I
RULES AND BYE-LAWS OF THE BERNE
MUNICIPAL UNEMPLOYMENT
INSURANCE FUND
RULES
1. THE expenditure of the Unemployment Insurance
Fund shall be defrayed by means of
(a) The contribution of the Municipality ;
(b) The contributions of its members ;
(V) The contributions of employers ;
(d) Voluntary donations.
The Municipality pays an annual contribution of ^480,
subject to the proviso that in the event of the accounts
of the Fund showing a surplus, such surplus shall accrue
to the Fund, and shall be carried forward in the balance-
sheet of the following year. On the other hand, in the
event of such accounts showing a deficit, no liability in
respect thereof shall fall upon the Municipality, and
such deficit shall be met out of the resources of the
Fund itself.
2. Every Swiss citizen resident, temporarily or per-
manently, within the Municipal area of Berne, who is
capable of performing labour and is under sixty years of
age, can claim admission as a member of the Fund.
Such admission shall take place by his making appli-
cation to his employer, or to the President of his Trade
Society, or directly to the Manager of the Institution.
3. On and after the ist of April in each year a list
of the admissions of new members shall every month
be furnished by the admission offices receiving the
82
APPENDIX I 83
applications for membership to the Manager of the
Institution.
4. As from his admission as a member of the Fund,
each such member becomes liable to pay to the Fund a
monthly contribution of 6f d. A workman admitted in
the course of any given month [/. e., otherwise than on
the ist of the month] must at the end of such month pay
the monthly contribution for the entire month.
5. Each admission office has to forward to the Fund,
together with the monthly lists of members, the amount
of their monthly premiums.
6. The Administration of the Fund, in the event of
the occurrence of unemployment, endeavours, in con-
junction with the Municipal authorities, to find work
for the unemployed. With this object in view, the
Municipal Administration will, so far as may be practi-
cable, reserve such kinds of work, the execution of which
it is possible to defer, to be done in winter by
unemployed members of the Unemployment Insurance
Fund.
If and when actual unemployment shall take place,
the Managing Committee J once in every month fixes
the daily allowance payable to the unemployed.
Such allowance shall be an amount not exceeding
is. 2\d. per day in the case of single persons (with no
dependants) or is. *]\d. per day for persons with families
dependent upon them. The payment of such allowances
shall take place only after the recipient shall have been a
member of the Fund for at least eight months, and shall
have paid all his contributions to the Fund and only in
the case of his being proved to be genuinely unemployed.
1 The Berne Unemployment Insurance Fund is attached to the
Municipal Labour Exchange, which is under the supervision of a
Committee of nine members, of whom three are chosen by the
workmen, three by the employers, and three by the Municipal
Council ; this Committee appoints two Sub-Committees, each com-
posed of three members, one of which takes charge of the Labour
Exchange, the other of the Unemployment Insurance Fund. The
Manager of the Labour Exchange attends all meetings in a consulta-
tive capacity, and acts as secretary of the Committee and of both
Sub-Committees.
84 INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
The date, upon which the payment of the daily
allowance shall commence and terminate respectively,
shall be fixed by the Committee.
7. The payment of the allowances to the members of
the Fund shall take place in accordance with the terms
of the preceding Rule and subject to the following
conditions :
(a) The resources at the disposal of the Insurance
Fund may not be employed for the relief of mem-
bers, whose unemployment is due to their laziness
or disorderly conduct, or who shall, without
sufficient cause, have refused work offered to
them.
(b) Such resources may also not be employed for the
support of strikers.
(c) All complaints with respect to the payment of
unemployed relief shall be settled by reference to
the Committee.
The Sub-Committee for the Insurance Fund shall
assist the staff of the Institution in the performance of
their duties.
8. In the event of disputes arising between the Ad-
ministration and the Members of the Fund, such disputes
shall be settled by the judgment of the Commercial
Court of the City of Berne, acting as a Court of
Arbitration.
BYE-LAWS
ADMINISTRATIVE REGULATIONS OF
THE BERNE MUNICIPAL UNEMPLOY-
MENT INSURANCE FUND
For the purpose of carrying into execution the pro-
visions of the Rules made by the Municipal Council for
the governance of the Unemployment Insurance Fund,
the regulations, which follow, have been drawn up by the
Managing Committee authorized in that behalf.
1. The members of the Berne Municipal Unemploy-
ment Insurance Fund are required to pay in regularly
their monthly contributions.
Membership commences with the beginning of that
month, in which the first contribution shall be paid.
2. Members of the Unemployment Insurance Fund,
upon their admission, receive a special member's book,
which shall contain the Rules, the Administrative Regu-
lations, and space in which to affix the Insurance
Stamps.
3. The payment of the contribution shall take place
by means of the purchase of Insurance Stamps at the
rate of 6f </. per month, and the affixing thereof in the
member's book.
4. The stamps of the Berne Municipal Unemployment
Insurance Fund may be purchased :
(a) At the Office of the Municipal Labour Exchange ;
() At the Office of the Workman's Secretary and at
the head-quarters of the Labourers' Union ;
(c) From such employers as receive applications for
admission ;
(d) From any Trade Society, whose members are
members of the Insurance Fund.
85
86 INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
5. At the Municipal Labour Exchange stamps may
be procured between 9 a.m. and n a.m. on any week-
day.
On Sundays the Labour Exchange is open for the
purchase of stamps, and for the inspection of members'
books from 10 a.m. to n a.m.
Should any alteration take place in these arrangements,
notification thereof shall be made in the Municipal
Gazette.
6. Members' books must, not less than once in every
two months, be presented at the Municipal Labour
Exchange for the purpose of inspection and of the
cancellation of the stamps. But this requirement shall
not apply in cases, in which the insurance contributions
are paid for a year or for six months at a time in
advance. ^
Members, who, by reason of their failure to pay their
monthly contributions, shall have been struck off the
register of members, must, in case of re-admission, pay
all arrears in full, except in the event of their proving,
that they had been absent from Berne during the period
in question.
7. Such members as shall have paid their insurance
contributions regularly, and can prove, that during the
year they have worked for at least six months for wages
in the employment of another person an employer
(sickness and military service are the only excuses, that
will be accepted as valid reasons to the contrary), are
entitled, in the event of their becoming unemployed at
any time within the months of December, January and
February, to receive from the Insurance Fund daily
allowances, but not during a longer period than ten
weeks at the most in any winter.
The right to receive such allowances (which commences
as from December i) accrues only after the member
has belonged to the Insurance Fund for eight months,
and is in other respects subject to Rules 5 and 6 [see
ante, p. 83]. With unemployment arising out of in-
capacity to perform labour the Insurance Fund is in no
way concerned.
APPENDIX I 87
Members, who in any year shall be more than five
months in arrear with their contributions, shall, so far as
concerns that year, be excluded from the receipt of daily
allowances.
The date, as from which the payment of daily allow-
ances shall cease, shall be determined by the Managing
Committee.
8. For the purpose of verifying the right of members
to receive allowances, the unemployed members of the
Fund shall elect two Delegates, whose duty it shall be to
certify the correct payment of such allowances.
9. The payment of daily allowances (in accordance
with Rule 6) shall be made to those entitled to receive
the same at the end of each week.
10. In respect of the first thirty days of unemployment
the amount of the daily allowance shall be the maximum
amdunt provided by the Rules, that is, is. 2\d. for
members with no dependants, and is. *i\d. for those
members who have families dependent on them.
In respect of days later than the first thirty, the amount
of the allowance shall be fixed, according to the state of
the Fund's resources, by the Managing Committee.
11. Persons, who shall have reported themselves as
being unemployed, are required to present themselves for
roll-call twice in every day. Time and place shall be
fixed by the Managing Committee. If a member shall
be absent from roll-call, or shall give incorrect informa-
tion, he shall be deprived of his daily allowance, as also
if he shall refuse to take up sufficiently remunerated
employment.
12. Admission to the Fund is free of all charge.
In the event of a member's ceasing to be a member,
he shall thereupon lose all his rights as against the
Insurance Fund. Persons re-admitted shall be required
to pay the contributions payable in respect of the whole
year.
13. The financial year of the Insurance Fund begins
with April i, and ends with March 31 of the following
year. On May i, in each year, the Managing Com-
mittee shall, in accordance with the rule [in regard to
88 INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
their duties] present to the Municipal Council a full
report with respect to their work and the position of the
Insurance Fund.
The report and amounts must be brought before the
members of the Fund in open meeting assembled ; and
at such meeting any expression of their wishes, which it
may be desired to make, shall take place.
Printed copies of the annual report, together with an
abstract of the accounts shall be placed in the hands of
the members.
14. The power of making alterations in these
Regulations shall rest with the Managing Committee.
APPENDIX II
REGULATIONS RELATING TO THE
SCHEME OF INSURANCE AGAINST
UNEMPLOYMENT ESTABLISHED BY
THE MUNICIPALITY OF STRASS-
BIJRG
1. THE City of Strassburg grants, in the first instance
as an experiment for the duration of one year, a sum not
exceeding ^250 for the purpose of encouraging insurance
against unemployment.
2. This sum is to be used for the purpose of granting
to every unemployed person, who belongs to an un-
employed benefit fund of a Trade Society of workpeople,
clerks, etc., a supplementary amount by way of addition
to the amount paid to him by such fund.
3. The addition shall be made only for benefit given
on the spot l in the case of involuntary unemployment.
If the unemployment is due to strikes and lock-outs or
their consequences, or to sickness, accident or invalidity,
the Municipal supplement shall not be granted. The
same holds good, if unemployed persons, who originally
had a right to assistance, are subsequently unemployed
owing to strikes or lock-outs.
4. The supplement shall be paid only to such un-
employed persons as, at the commencement of the period
of unemployment, shall have resided in Strassburg for
an uninterrupted period of at least one year.
5. The supplement amounts to 50 per cent, of the
benefit received by the unemployed person from his
Trade Society ; the maximum amount of the Municipal
1 /. e. y benefit other than travelling or migration pay.
89
90 INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
supplement shall, however, be is. per day for which
benefit is paid. As soon as it shall be seen that the
granting of 50 per cent, would cause the Municipal
contribution of 250 to be exceeded, a proportionate
decrease in the supplement shall be made.
6. The supplement shall cease to be paid, if the un-
employed person is referred to suitable work in his
trade. Single persons must also accept work away from
Strassburg, except in special circumstances.
7. Those Trade Societies of workpeople, clerks, etc.,
which grant to their members unemployed benefit, have
a claim to the Municipal supplement, so far as they
make a proposal to that effect at the Municipal Office,
and undertake to abide by the provisions of these
Regulations.
8. All such Trade Societies must deliver at the
Municipal Office a copy of their rules and of the regula-
lations for the time being in force, in relation to their
Unemployment Benefit Fund, and must administer this
fund separately from the other objects of the Society.
They must keep a current register, in which shall be
regularly entered
(a) Surname, Christian name, dwelling and occupa-
tion of all members who receive unemployment
benefit.
(/;) The amount of the benefit paid from the funds
of the Society to the person concerned in
accordance with its rules.
(<:) The amount added by the Municipality per
day and per head of the unemployed persons
concerned.
(d) The date of the commencement of unemploy-
ment, as also of the commencement of the right
to receive benefit.
(e) The number of days of unemployment, and the
number of days in respect of which a claim to
receive benefit exists.
9. The Trade Societies bind themselves to do all in
their power to restrict unemployment as much as pos-
sible. In case of unemployment, therefore, the members
APPENDIX II 91
must register themselves at the Municipal Labour
Exchange, at the latest on the first working day after
the commencement of the unemployment, and must
report themselves there daily at the appointed time in
order to verify the fact of their unemployment.
So far as concerns the period, which according to the
Regulations must elapse before a man's right to receive
unemployment benefit shall commence to accrue, that
period shall in all cases be deemed to begin as from the
date of his first registration at the Municipal Labour
Exchange.
The Municipal supplement will be paid in respect of
those days only, on which it is proved that the person
has reported himself at the Labour Exchange.
10. The Trade Societies shall pay to their members
the amount of the Municipal supplement in advance.
In the first half of every month they shall present at the
Municipal Office the account of the past month, with a
copy of their list of unemployed members.
If the account is not presented at the proper time, the
Municipal supplement shall be paid only in the following
month.
11. The Trade Societies shall allow any persons
authorized to that effect by the Municipal Office to
inspect their account books for the purpose of verifying
the due observance of the provisions of these Regula-
tions.
12. Every act of deception on the part of a member
committed with the object of receiving a supplement, to
which he has no right, shall be followed by the exclusion
of the person concerned from the grant of the supple-
ment for a period of one year.
If it is proved, that an official of the Trade Society
has acted in collusion with the impostor, the Society can
be excluded from drawing the Municipal supplement for
a year.
13. Disputes arising out of these Regulations are to be
decided by a Sub-Committee of the Committee of Man-
agement of the Municipal Labour Exchange acting as a
Court of Arbitration. This Sub-Committee shall consist
92 INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
of the president of the Committee of Management and
of one employer and one workman selected from those
elected by the Municipal Council to sit on that
Committee.
The two last-named members shall be elected by the
Committee as a whole.
14. These Regulations shall come into force on
January i, 1907. On December i, 1907, a detailed
report shall be made to the Municipal Council showing
the results of the working of this scheme.
APPENDIX III
NORWEGIAN LAWS CONCERNING
STATE AND COMMUNAL SUBSIDIES
TO UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE
FUNDS
I. ACT relating to State and Communal subventions
to Norwegian Unemployment Insurance Funds, dated
June 12, 1906.
i. All Norwegian Unemployment Insurance Funds,
which fulfill the conditions specified in the present Act,
shall, upon making application in that behalf, obtain an
acknowledgment of their right to be reimbursed one-
fourth part of the moneys expended by them in relieving
persons insured with such Funds, who have their residence
in Norway, provided that such persons are Norwegian
subjects or shall have resided in Norway during the last
five years. Such reimbursements shall be made quarterly
by the Government Department, to which the King may
entrust the administration of this Act. The day, on
which the reimbursement shall be made to each Fund,
shall be fixed by the Department.
2. In order that a Fund may be qualified to receive
such reimbursement, at least one-half of its income must
be derived from contributions paid by its members. In
addition, the rules of the Fund must include the following
provisions :
(i) Members shall only be entitled to receive relief if
they have been associated with the Fund during
at least the last half-year, and have paid their
contributions for at least twenty-six weeks subse-
quent to the last notification of unemployment.
93
94 INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
(2) Benefit on the spot [" unemployed benefit "] l shall
not be given until the unemployment has lasted
at least three days.
(3) No member shall receive, as unemployed benefit,
a sum exceeding one-half of the average daily
wage current in the trade followed by him.
(4) Benefit shall not be paid for more than ninety days
in any one year (financial or calendar, as the
case may be).
(5) Unemployed members shall be obliged to accept
such work as the Administration of the Fund
shall consider suitable for them.
(6) In the event of the ordinary contributions proving
to be insufficient, an extraordinary contribution
may be levied ; further, if necessary, a reduction
may be made in the scale of the benefit authorized
by the rules of the Fund.
(7) Benefit shall be refused to any member, who is at
the same time a member of another Unemployed
Fund, or who is in fact in receipt of benefit
from a Sickness Insurance Fund.
(8) Unemployment benefit, travelling benefit, and
migration grants shall only be paid to such
insured persons as are capable of work and are
unemployed otherwise than through their own
act and default. Unemployment occasioned by
a strike or a lock-out shall not be considered as
being within that category.
Funds already in existence may obtain pro-
visional authorization even though their rules
are not in accordance with the conditions above
stated. But such authorization shall only hold
good during the period, which, according to the
rules of the Fund, must elapse before an altera-
tion in the rules can lawfully be made.
3. An application for the recognition of a claim to
reimbursement shall be sent in to the Department con-
1 I. f., ordinary unemployed benefit as distinguished from travel-
ling pay and migration grants.
APPENDIX III 95
cerned accompanied by a copy of the rules of the Unem-
ployment Insurance Fund. If the Department shall find
that the said rules satisfy the conditions specified in the
preceding section, and are in other respects not incon-
sistent with the provisions of the present Act, the applica-
tion may be granted. Subsequent alterations in the rules
of the Fund shall not be made without the sanction of
the Department.
4. Two-thirds of the sum provided by the State in
accordance with the provisions of the present Act shall
be reimbursed yearly by the Authorities of the several
rural and urban districts, in which those persons, who
have received unemployed benefit, shall have resided for
at least six consecutive months in the course of the last
five years, reckoning from the first day on which the
benefit was granted. Notwithstanding the provisions
hereinbefore contained, no liability for reimbursement
shall exist on the part of any Local Authority in relation
to any persons, who shall have been employed as per-
manent or temporary workmen in the construction of
public roads, railways or similar works, and have resided
in the locality only by reason of this work.
The State shall bear the entire cost :
(a) If no proof is forthcoming that the conditions as
to length of residence necessary to entitle a
claim for reimbursement being made have been
fulfilled ;
(b) If the persons in receipt of benefit shall not have
resided in a Norwegian district for six consecu-
tive months during the last five years ;
(c) If the district, in which persons in receipt of relief
have last resided during six consecutive months,
is freed from the obligation of reimbursement
by reason of the second sentence of the present
section.
The decision, whether any, and which, district is
responsible for reimbursement shall rest with the Depart-
ment concerned.
5. Every Unemployment Insurance Fund, which is
entitled to reimbursement, shall keep separate accounts.
96 INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
Its assets shall be kept distinct from other assets and
from the other funds of the Association, if any, to which
it may be affiliated, and may only be applied to meet the
special obligations of the Fund. If the Fund is affiliated
to an Association, its assets cannot be seized, attached,
or held as security by the creditors of the Association.
No person shall have the right to obtain satisfaction
for the debts due by an insured person out of any moneys,
to which such .person shall be entitled by reason of his
claims on the Fund.
6. Any Unemployment Insurance Fund affiliated to
an Association must, in order to be entitled to reim-
bursement, allow persons engaged in the same trade as
the members of the Fund, to insure themselves therewith,
on the same conditions as such members, even though
they are not members of the Association. Such last-
mentioned insured persons shall, however, not be entitled
to take any part in any decision with respect to the rules
of the Fund or in the administration of the Fund, unless
the Association shall pass a special resolution on this
subject. Further, in so far as the cost of administration
of the Fund shall be defrayed by the Association in
question, the Fund may impose upon such members a
contribution increased by loper cent, to cover such cost,
and should this prove to be insufficient, the Fund may,
with the consent of the Department, further increase
such contributions by an amount which shall not exceed
15 per cent.
7. Any person either actually insured, or having
applied to be insured with an Unemployed Fund coming
under the present Act, who shall consider, that any
decision made by the Administration of the Fund in his
case is contrary to law, shall have the right to appeal
against such decision to the Department concerned.
8. An Unemployment Insurance Fund, whose claim
to reimbursement shall have been allowed, shall not pay
benefit to any unemployed persons residing in a district,
in which a Labour Exchange exists, until such persons
shall have registered themselves at such Exchange as ap-
plicants for employment. In regard to any benefits paid
APPENDIX III 97
without such registration at a Labour Exchange having
taken place, the Unemployment Insurance Fund in
question shall forfeit all claim to reimbursement. Directly
the unemployed persons shall have found work, informa-
tion of the fact shall be given by the Unemployment
Insurance Fund to the Labour Exchange.
9. Unemployment Insurance Funds receiving reim-
bursement under the present Act shall send in to the
Department concerned at the end of every quarter an
account of their expenditure on unemployed benefit
during that quarter, together with such vouchers and
explanations as the Department may require. As soon
as the account has been found to be in order, the
reimbursement mentioned in Section i shall take
place.
10. Every Unemployment Insurance Fund shall
send to the Department once in every year a report of its
operations and a summary of its accounts.
ii. Unemployment Insurance Funds referred to in
the present Act shall send in monthly reports to the
Local Authorities of those districts, in which unemployed
benefit is paid; such reports shall be drawn up in
accordance with a scheme framed by the Department.
The Local Authority shall, after examining the reports,
transmit them as soon as possible to the Department
concerned, together with such observations as the reports
may call for. Any items in the expenditure of the Funds,
which have not formed the subject of any remarks on
the part of the Local Authority, shall be regarded as
approved by that authority, provided that the liability
for reimbursement shall, according to the present Act,
rest with the Commune whose duty it is to check such
reports.
12. The Local Authority shall have power, either
by its own officials or through an Auditor or a Board of
Auditors appointed by it, to subject to a critical examin-
ation the reports received by it, and to decide that such
reports shall be sent direct to the Auditor or Board of
Auditors. If a special Auditor or Board of Auditors
shall be appointed for this purpose, the appointment
H
98 INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
shall be made for a period of three years, and it shall be
open to any person to refuse to serve again during a
period of time as long as the period during which he
shall have already served as Auditor. It shall be the
duty of the Local Authority, or of the Auditor or Board
of Auditors appointed by such authority, to see to it that
the rules of the Unemployment Insurance Funds are, so
far as concerns the provisions contained in Section 2,
sub-section 8, strictly observed; the Local Authority
shall also have power to examine, so far as may be
necessary, the books and accounts of the Unemployment
Insurance Funds, and further, to require from the
Administration of the Funds all such explanations as
may appear necessary. The Auditor or Board of
Auditors shall fulfill the duties of his office in accordance
with a code of regulations drawn up by the Local
Authority with the approval of the Department In
case of disagreement between the Local Authority or the
Auditor or Board of Auditors and an Unemployment
Ins' .ranee Fund concerning the legality of the relief paid,
the matter shall be referred to the Department for
decision.
13. The reports referred to in Section 9 must be
sent in to the Department within six weeks after the end
of the quarter, and those referred to in Section 1 1 must
be sent in to the Local Authority within fourteen days
after the end of the month, in default whereof the right
to receive reimbursement shall be forfeited.
14. In the event of repeated contravention in
material points of its rules, or of the reports sent in by
it being continuously through a considerable period of
time seriously defective, it shall be in the power of the
Department to withdraw from any Unemployment Insur-
ance Fund or from a section of any such F ind the right
to receive reimbursement.
15. This Act shall come into force on October i,
1906, and shall cease to be in operation at latest at the
end of the year 1911.
II. Act to amend Section i of the Act of June 12,
APPENDIX III 99
1906, with respect to State and Communal subventions
to Norwegian Unemployment Insurance Funds, dated
July 25, 1908.
Section i of the Act of June 12, 1906, with respect to
State and Communal subventions to Norwegian Unem-
ployment Insurance Funds shall hereafter read as
follows :
" i. All Norwegian Unemployment Insurance Funds,
which shall fulfill the conditions specified in the present
Act, shall, upon making application in that behalf, obtain
an acknowledgment of their right to be reimbursed one-
third part of the amount expended by them in relieving
persons insured with such Funds, who have their resi-
dence in Norway, provided that such persons are either
Norwegian subjects, or shall have resided in Norway
during the last five years. Such reimbursements shall
be made quarterly by the Government Department to
which the King may entrust the administration of this Act.
The day, on which the reimbursement shall be made to
each Fund, shall be fixed by the Department."
APPENDIX IV
PART I
DANISH LAW CONCERNING STATE
AND COMMUNAL SUBVENTIONS
TO UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE
FUNDS
I. Act relating to recognized Unemployment Insurance
Funds, dated April 9, 1907.
i. IN this Act the term "Unemployment Insurance
Funds " shall mean associations of persons working for a
wage in one or more specified occupations (such as
commerce, office work, industry, handicraft, agriculture,
hotel work, transport or mining), who have combined in
order to provide, by means of the payment of a specified
contribution, mutual assistance in case of unemployment,
other than unemployment arising out of any of the
causes specified in 13.
An Unemployment Insurance Fund must have no
other purpose than that specified above.
2. Every Unemployment Insurance Fund shall have
a claim to State recognition and the consequent grant
from the public funds, if it shall fulfill the conditions
specified in the present Act, and shall upon the proposal
in that behalf of the Inspector of Unemployment, be
recognized by the Minister of the Interior. Neverthe-
less, when any Unemployment Insurance Fund, estab-
lished for one or more particular trades or for any parti-
cular district, shall already have been recognized, the
Minister of the Interior shall, after making the necessary
100
APPENDIX IV 101
inquiries, and in conformity with the report of the
Unemployment Insurance Committee established under
1 8, have power to refuse recognition to any other
Unemployment Insurance Fund in the said trades or
district.
The act of recognition shall be communicated by the
Minister of the Interior, and shall be published by the
said Minister. Recognized Unemployment Insurance
Funds shall be entitled to accept as members persons
who pay contributions withoyt having any cfainj to ;rblief
from the Fund.
3. Applications for recognition shall be/tjrtfnsinitted.
to the Inspector of Unemployment accompanied 'by-^- * > '
(1) A copy of the rules of the Fund;
(2) A register of the members containing their names
and callings, and in addition showing how far
they may be considered to be seasonal
workers.
(3) A copy of the resolution, in accordance with which
the recognition is applied for ; and
(4) A financial report for the past year, except when
the Fund making application is newly
founded.
4. In order to receive public recognition, an Unem-
ployment Insurance Fund must have at least fifty mem-
bers. Under special circumstances the Minister may
also sanction the recognition of such Funds as have a
smaller membership.
An Unemployment Insurance Fund must operate
either in one or more particular trades, in which case it
must include at least one province, or else it must be
exclusively confined to one locality. A Trade Fund may
be divided into local sections.
A local section of a Trade Fund shall, with respect
to the contribution of the Commune, be in precisely the
same position as a local Fund.
5. Only workmen, whose circumstances are such as
to entitle them to State aid from an officially recognized
Sick Fund, can be full members (/. e., members entitled
to benefit) of recognized Unemployment Insurance
102 INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
Funds. Nevertheless, Funds already in existence
previous to the passing of the present Act may obtain
recognition by making the necessary application within
six months, with the proviso that those members, to
whom the above conditions do not apply, but who were
admitted to membership in the Fund before the passing
of the present Act, may become full members of the
Fund. Nevertheless, the Fund shall not be entitled to
receive State grants in respect of the premiums paid by
siic'u numbers.
The age-limit for admission to membership in a recog-
nized Unemployment Insurance Fund shall be laid down
in the -rules, but no person under eighteen or except
in case of transference from one Fund to another over
sixty years of age, may be admitted to membership.
Admission to membership in a recognized Unemploy-
ment Insurance Fund as a full member cannot be
refused to any person fulfilling the conditions specified
above (but cf. 6) and belonging to the trade or trades, or
residing within the locality for which the Fund is estab-
lished. Such persons as are not workmen, and whose
circumstances are not such as to entitle them to draw
State aid from a recognized Sick Fund, shall, if they
possess the necessary qualifications in other respects, be
entitled to become contributing members of a recognized
Unemployment Insurance Fund, and shall acquire the
rights of full members, so soon as all the conditions
qualifying them for such rights shall be present. Any
person hitherto a full member of a recognized Unem-
ployment Insurance Fund, who no longer fulfills the
prescribed conditions in this respect, may become a
contributing member with the right again to revert to
the status of full member, if he complies with all the
required conditions with the exception of that with
respect to the age-limit. The extent of the yearly con-
tributions to be paid by such members shall be
determined by the rules of the Fund. When contribut-
ing members become full members, they shall pay the
contribution due from full members. The Sick Fund
Committee mentioned in 7, of Act 85, April 12,
APPENDIX IV 103
1892, shall, with respect to i, sub-section i, decide
whether any particular persons may, in accordance with
the conditions prescribed in this paragraph, be accepted
as member in a recognized Unemployment Insurance
Fund, and under what category he may be admitted.
With respect to other qualifications, the decision shall
rest with the Inspector of Unemployment. An appeal
against any particular decision may be lodged with the
Minister of the Interior, whose decision shall be final.
6. A provision may be inserted in the rules of a recog-
nized Unemployment Insurance Fund, which shall give the
Administration of the Fund power to refuse admission
to such persons as appear to be physically or morally
incapable of continued self-support or of working [on
good terms] with foremen or fellow-workmen. Similarly,
it may be provided in the rules, that the Administration
of the Fund shall have power to exclude such persons
from membership in the Fund. Nevertheless, an appeal
against any decision of the Administration of the Fund
coming under this Section may be lodged with the
Unemployment Insurance Committee mentioned in iS
of the present Act, which shall give its decision after due
consideration of the special circumstances of the case.
Similarly, an appeal against the decision of the Unem-
ployment Insurance Committee may be lodged with the
Minister of the Interior, against whose decision there
shall be no appeal.
7. No person shall at one and the same time be a
member of more than one recognized Unemployment
Insurance Fund. If any person, at the time of his
joining a recognized Unemployment Insurance Fund,
is at the same time member of a non-recognized Un-
employment Insurance Fund, he must, on applying, at
once inform the Managing Committee of the fact.
Similarly, if a member of a recognized Unemployment
Insurance Fund is, or becomes, at the same time
member of a non-recognized Unemployment Insurance
Fund, notification must immediately be made. No
member of a recognized Unemployment Insurance Fund
may, by joining several such Funds, secure daily allow-
io 4 INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
ances amounting in the aggregate to more than two-
thirds of the average wage current in the trade or trades
for, or in the districts within which the Fund operates.
The contravention of any of the provisions of the
foregoing paragraph, as also dishonest conduct towards
the Fund, shall be punishable by expulsion.
8. The yearly premium in a recognized Unemploy-
ment Insurance Fund (including the contribution out of
public Funds referred to below in 9) shall be fixed at
such a sum as shall appear, from an examination of the
available evidence, to be sufficient, in all cases, which
may arise, to supply members with the unemployed
benefit provided for in the rules, the amount of which
must in all cases be such that this benefit will be of
some real service to them. An additional contribution
corresponding to the varying needs of the Fund may, if
necessary, be levied.
The income and the capital of the Fund shall be kept
strictly separate from the funds of other Associations,
and may not be transferred by way of loan or gift, to
any other Association or in any way be used for any
unauthorized purpose.
9. Recognized Unemployment Insurance Funds shall
receive a yearly grant from the Exchequer to the extent
of one-third of the total premiums of the Funds as laid
down in 8 (but cf. 5, i); but in no case shall such
grants exceed the sum of ^13,889. The grant shall be
distributed amongst the Funds in proportion to the
amount of their respective premiums.
The Commune, in which a member has his settlement,
shall, without its being necessary to obtain the sanction
of any higher authority, have power to give a contribution
towards defraying his premium for the current financial
year ; such contribution, however, must not exceed one-
sixth of the premium. The receipt of such contribution
shall not carry with it for the person, for whose advantage
the contribution is paid, the consequences entailed by
the receipt of Poor Relief. Communes, in which re-
cognized Unemployment Insurance Funds have their
head-quarters or branch offices for which purpose
APPENDIX IV 105
Copenhagen and Fredriksborg shall be considered as
one Commune shall likewise have power, without its
being necessary to obtain the sanction of any higher
authority, to pay a contribution to the Fund, or Funds
concerned ; but such contribution may not exceed one-
sixth of the yearly premium of those members of such
Funds, who had their settlement in that Commune on
March 31 then last.
10. In order to receive a grant out of public Funds
for the past year, it shall be necessary to send in to the In-
spector of Unemployment a financial report for that year,
reckoning from April i to March 31 inclusive, also a
report on the operations of the Fund during that period,
and a register of the members of the Fund showing the
proportion of the premium paid by each member, and
by the Commune in which he has his settlement. The
form for such a register shall be drawn up by the In-
spector of Unemployment. The Inspector of Unemploy-
ment shall, after examining the reports, cause the State
grant for the past year to be paid out of the proper funds
to every Unemployment Insurance Fund.
ii. The decision as to the extent and character of
the relief to be paid in any particular case, shall rest with
the Administration of the Fund.
The relief may consist of :
1) Travelling benefit ;
2) Assistance in paying rent ;
3) Daily allowance in cash ;
4) Assistance in kind.
With respect to a trade Fund, not more than two-thirds
of the average wage current in the particular trade or
trades, and with respect to a local Fund, not more than
two-thirds of the common daily wages of labour current
in the locality, for which the Fund is established, shall
be paid by way of daily relief, whether for lodging benefit,
daily allowance in cash, or assistance in kind. In no
case shall the relief paid amount to a smaller sum than
6f </. or a greater sum than 2$. 2\d. If any member of
a Fund, who is entitled to receive relief, shall find
employment, either offered to him by the Administration
io6 INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
of the Fund or procured by his own efforts, of which the
remuneration is less than the maximum relief specified
above, the Fund may add to his wages a sum, which
shall bring his total earnings up to that maximum.
Benefit shall not be paid to any person, who shall not
have been a member of the Fund for at least twelve
months, and shall not have paid the contribution due
from him for that period. Such persons as shall be per-
forming military service shall be freed from the obligation
of paying contributions during their period of service,
but shall nevertheless be qualified to receive relief after
they shall have finished their service, providing that, at
the time when the relief shall be granted, they shall have
been members of the Fund for at least twelve months, and
shall have paid the contributions due from them for at
least three months during that period. Relief shall not
be paid during the first six days of unemployment, a
" waiting time " which may be increased by the rules up
to a maximum period of fifteen days. This provision
shall not apply when only travelling pay is claimed.
With respect to Funds, which include seasonal work-
men among their full members, the Minister of the
Interior may, after hearing the views of the Committee
mentioned in 1 8, direct that in certain specified seasons
no relief shall be granted by the Funds to such of their
members as are seasonal workers, unless their unemploy-
ment lasts longer than 15 days, and in that case the
number of days shall be separately fixed.
12. The travelling pay, to which any person is
entitled under the preceding paragraph, shall not exceed
the whole sum, which, by the rules, is allowed to be paid
in the shape of daily benefit during a period of twelve
consecutive months (cf. 14).
13. A recognized Unemployment Insurance Fund
may not give relief to :
(1) Persons taking part in strikes or lock-outs ;
(2) Members, whose unemployment is due to illness
or infirmity, for as long as such illness or infirmity
shall last ;
(3) Members, whose unemployment is due to their
APPENDIX IV 107
having left their situations on insufficient grounds,
or whose unemployment is caused by quarrel-
someness towards their employers or fellow-
workmen ;
(4) Members undergoing judicial detention after con-
viction ;
(5) Members, who are in prison pending trial ;
(6) Members, who are in receipt of Poor Law Relief;
and
(7) Members, who refuse to accept work suitable
to their capacities, which shall have been offered
to them by the Administration of the Fund.
In addition, a recognized Unemployment Insurance
Fund may not give relief to such members as are perform-
ing military service.
If with respect to the provisions laid down above in
1-3 and 6-7, the Administration of the Fund shall refuse
to grant relief to an unemployed member, the person
concerned may, within a period of one month, bring
the decision of the Administration in this matter before
the Committee mentioned in 18, which shall give its
decision after due consideration of the facts of the par-
ticular case. Appeal against the decision of the Com-
mittee may, within a period of one month, be lodged
with the Minister of the Interior, against whose decision
there shall be no appeal.
14. The amount of relief, which may, during twelve
consecutive months, be paid by a recognized Unemploy-
ment Insurance Fund, shall be determined by its rules
in such a way that it shall amount to a sum correspond-
ing to at least 70 days' daily allowance on the scale laid
down in the rules.
The Minister of the Interior shall have power to
recognize Unemployment Insurance Funds, which, during
twelve consecutive months pay a sum corresponding to
only fifty days' allowance ; such recognition shall, how-
ever, be exceptional, and may only be granted in cases
in which the benefit provided under the rules of the
Fund shall amount to at least 10^. per diem.
If a member, during a period not exceeding three
io8 INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
consecutive financial years, shall have received relief
amounting to 210 days' benefit, or in cases in which
the provision contained in the preceding paragraph of the
present section is applied to three times the number of
days' benefit specified in the official certificate of recog-
nition, the Fund may not pay him any further benefit
until he shall have been a member of the Fund for the
whole of the succeeding year, and shall also have paid
the contributions due for that period.
15. The supervision of recognized Unemployment
Insurance Funds shall be entrusted to an " Inspector of
Unemployment," who shall draw a yearly salary of ^167.
In so far as the present Sick Fund Inspector may have
to undertake the duties of Inspector of Unemployment,
he shall be dealt with according to the provisions of 3
of the Act of January 5, 1851.
The sum required for staff and office expenses of the
Inspector of Unemployment shall be voted in the annual
budget. In the event of the appointment of Inspector
of Unemployment being vacant, it may be determined
by Royal Decree, that such appointment shall not be
filled, but that the supervision over the Unemployment
Insurance Funds shall be entrusted to a Director, who
shall exercise it in conjunction with the supervision over
the Sick Funds established by the Act No. 85 of April
n, 1892, and also with the supervision over the Burial
Funds created by the Act No. 55 of April i, 1903.
The said office shall be taken over by the Sick Fund
Inspector mentioned in 23 of Act 85 of April 12, 1892,
whose office shall at the same time be abolished.
The Director shall receive a yearly salary of ^278,
rising every fourth year reckoning from the date of his
appointment as Sick Fund Inspector by ^28, until it
shall reach a maximum of ^361.
The sum required for the assistance of the Director
and for his office expenses shall be voted in the annual
budget.
1 6. Every recognized Unemployment Insurance Fund
shall send one delegate to the annual meeting ; if a Fund
shall contain more than 1,000 members, it shall have the
APPENDIX IV 109
right to send two delegates, and a further delegate for
every additional 1,000 members. The delegates shall be
chosen by the Board of Management concerned from
among the members of the Fund.
The annual meeting, under the presidency of the
Inspector of Unemployment, shall discuss the operations
and the co-operation of the Funds ; furthermore, six
persons shall be chosen from among the delegates to be
members of the Unemployment Insurance Committee
and also six substitutes ( 17). The members of the
Unemployment Insurance Committee and the substitutes
shall be elected for a period of six years, the first election
taking place at latest at the second annual meeting after
the present Act shall have come into force, in such
a manner that one-half of the Committee and their
substitutes shall retire after holding office for three years.
The question, as to which members shall retire after the
first three years, shall be decided by lot.
A member of the Committee or a substitute shall retire
automatically, when he ceases to be a member of a recog-
nized Unemployment Insurance Fund ; the election of a
new member (or substitute) in his stead shall take place
at the following general meeting.
17. Until the election can be held in the manner
prescribed in 16, the Minister of the Interior shall
nominate the requisite number of persons to be
members of the Committee and their substitutes.
1 8. The Unemployment Insurance Committee shall
consist of the members indicated above in 16 (cf. 17)
and of the Inspector of Unemployment, who shall
preside.
Besides having the rights " and obligations expressly
laid down in the present Act, the Committee shall act
as a link between the different Funds, and shall draw
up proposals for co-operation, including a proposal for
facilitating the transference of members from one Fund
to another, and shall, as far as possible, secure uniformity
in the rules of the Funds with respect to the benefits
payable. The necessary funds for the Committee,
including the daily allowances and the travelling
no INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
expenses of its members, shall be voted in the annual
budget.
If the Committee shall consider that a recognized
Unemployed Insurance Fund, without exactly contra-
vening the provisions of the Act, is acting towards its
members or towards the other Unemployed Insurance
Funds in such a way as to impair the whole institution,
the Inspector of Unemployment shall advise the Minister
of the Interior as to how far it may be advisable to cancel
the recognition of such Fund.
19. The rules of a recognized Unemployment
Insurance Fund shall give information on the following
points :
(1) The name, address, object of, and locality covered
by the Fund, the admission of new members,
their rights and duties, including their mutual
obligations and the provisions relating thereto.
(2) The general meeting and Board of Management,
and the powers of the latter.
(3) The system of accounts and audit, the employ-
ment of the property of the Fund, and the
application of the balance in the event of the
Fund going into liquidation.
(4) Alterations in the rules.
Resolutions with respect to the application of the
balance in case of the Fund going into liquidation,
which have been made in accordance with the rules of
the Fund, shall only be valid after they have received
the sanction of the Inspector of Unemployment. The
distribution of such balance amongst the members of the
Fund shall not be permitted.
Every modification in the rules shall require the
sanction of the Inspector of Unemployment. Never-
theless an appeal against his decision may be lodged
with the Minister of the Interior.
20. The Inspector of Unemployment shall examine
the annual financial reports sent in by the Funds, and shall
generally supervise the recognized Unemployment Insur-
ance Funds. In addition, he shall provide them with
the necessary information and guidance, and shall assist
APPENDIX IV iir
in the establishment of new Funds. He shall have
authority to examine, at any time, the books, accounts,
and the general administration of the Funds.
The Inspector of Unemployment shall lay before the
Minister of the Interior an annual report of the opera-
tions of the Funds. An extract from this report may
be published by the Minister of the Interior.
21. If the Board of Management of any Fund does
not punctually carry out the requirements of the present
Act, or if its actions are not in accordance with the
provisions of the Act, or if the Funds are lacking in the
necessary organization and supervision, and do not in
this respect comply with the directions of the Inspector
of Unemployment, the Minister of the Interior shall
have power to cancel the recognition of any such Fund.
22. Documents required for the execution of insur-
ance contracts between recognized Funds and their
members shall be free of stamp duty.
23. This Act, which shall not apply to the Faroe
Islands, shall come into force three months after its
publication in the official Gazette of Laws ; nevertheless
15 can, in accordance with definite instructions to be
issued by the Minister of the Interior, be put into force
at an earlier date.
The proposal for the revision of the Act shall be laid
before the ordinary meeting of Parliament in the year
1912;
PART II
MODEL RULES FOR UNEMPLOYMENT
INSURANCE FUNDS (TRADE FUNDS)
RULES OF THE . . .
UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE FUND
AT ... (DENMARK)
Object and Address
i. THE . . . Unemployment Insurance Fund,
which has its principal office at ... has for its
object to secure to its full members [members entitled
to benefit] mutual assistance in case of unemployment
other than unemployment due to any of the causes
specified in u of these Rules.
Admission
2. Only such workmen, whose economic position
does not prohibit them from being full members
[members entitled to benefit] of an officially recognized
Sick Fund, and who are engaged in the trade of ...
and reside at ... (Denmark), may be admitted as full
members of the Unemployment Insurance Fund.
No person, who is under eighteen or over sixty years
of age, may be admitted as a full member.
Admission to full membership of the Fund cannot be
refused to any person who shall fulfill the conditions
above specified (but cf. 6).
3. Persons possessing private means, admitted to
the membership of the Unemployment Insurance Fund
before April 9, 1907, can, if the Fund shall apply for
official recognition prior to February i, 1908, remain
full members of such Fund. In respect of the contiv
112
APPENDIX IV 113
bution (premium) paid by such last-named members
the Fund in the meantime receives no subvention from
public moneys.
4. In addition, the Fund also admits to membership
such men and women as may desire to support the Fund
without having any right to claim assistance for them-
selves. Such members may subsequently become full
members if they shall fulfill the necessary conditions, but
irrespective of their age, if they have been contributing
members before their . . . th year.
Full members, who cannot be considered to be persons
not possessing private means, must either become con-
tributing members (preserving the rights incidental to
membership), or must retire from the Fund.
Contributing members (preserving their membership
rights) pay a yearly contribution of ... kr. As and
when any person, who is a contributing member, shall
become a full member, such person shall be required to
pay the ordinary contribution payable by full members.
5. If any person shall be admitted to membership
by a branch, such admission shall be subject to the
ratification of the Head Office. If a man is refused
admission on the ground that he is in possession of
private means, he can demand, that the question of his
right to be admitted shall be settled by the Committee
mentioned in the Sickness Insurance Law of April 1892.
7. The question, whether any person shall or shall
not be allowed to retain his membership, as not being
without such means (cf. 4) shall be decided by the
same tribunal.
In the event of admission being refused to any person,
or of any person's membership being terminated on the
ground that such person does not fulfill the other condi-
tions specified in paragraphs 2-4, he can demand, that
the question shall be referred to the Inspector of
Unemployment.
From any decision by a Sick Fund Committee, or by
the Inspector of Unemployment, appeal shall lie to the
Minister of the Interior, whose decision shall be final.
6. The Managing Committee of the Fund shall be
i
n 4 INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
empowered to refuse admission to any persons, who
either on physical or moral grounds must be considered
to be unfit for regular work or unlikely to remain on
good terms with the foreman under, or the fellow-
workmen with, whom they work. In the event of any
such persons being already Members of the Fund, the
Managing Committee shall have the right to terminate
their membership. Any decision by the Managing
Committee of this nature may within one month be
appealed against to the Committee mentioned in
Section 18 of the Unemployment Insurance Law, which
shall consider the matter with reference to the special
circumstances of the case. From the decision of the
said Committee an appeal may within one month be
brought to the Minister of the Interior, whose decision
shall be final.
7. Any person, whose membership shall be termi-
nated by reason of his having got into arrear with his
contributions, but who in other respects fulfills the con-
ditions laid down by the Rules, may be re-admitted by
paying the arrears, together with the contributions due
subsequently to the termination of his membership, but
in no case shall be required to pay more than . . . kr.
Any persons, who shall have retired from membership,
and who in the meantime shall have worked in the same
occupation, who owe nothing to the Fund, and who
fulfill the conditions required in the case of full members,
shall on re-admission to membership be required to pay
. . . kr.
Rights and Duties
( The object of this paragraph is to assist the different
Funds in the compilation of tficir Special Rules.)
8. The various forms, in which assistance can be
given, are as follows :
1. Travelling pay.
2. Assistance in paying rent.
3. Daily cash allowances.
4. Assistance in kind.
APPENDIX IV 115
The amount to be granted by means of daily payments
(assistance in paying rent, daily cash allowances, and
assistance in kind) shall in the aggregate and on the
average correspond with the amount of the daily allow-
ance payable according to the Rules of the Fund (e.g.^
is. i Jd'.) l The amount and kind of the benefit payable
shall be fixed separately for each Fund. But in any
case, whatever be the form in which it shall be given,
the benefit must be kept within the limits specified in
9-
If a member, who, by reason of his being unemployed,
is entitled to benefit, shall undertake work, either found
for him by the Managing Committee (cf. n, sub-section
7) or obtained by his own efforts, the remuneration
received by him for which is smaller in amount than the
benefit, then the Managing Committee shall make good
to him the difference between such remuneration and
the benefit.
9. No person shall, in twelve successive months,
receive benefit to an amount, which exceeds . . . kr.
(minimum ^3 171. 9|<). 2
If a member shall, in each of three successive years
have received benefit to a total amount of ... kr.
(minimum 11 135-. 4^.), 3 it shall not be permissible for
1 The average daily benefit must not, if the Fund is one established
for a particular trade or group of trades, exceed two-thirds of the
average earnings in the trade or trades in question, or if the Fund
is established for a particular local area, then two-thirds of the
usual earnings of labour in such locality. In any case the benefit
must not be less than 6%d. nor more than 2s. 2$d. per day ; it shall,
however, be permissible to make the amount and duration of the
benefit vary according to the date of a member's admission to
membership.
2 By way of exception only, the minimum limit (in regard to the
amount receivable within any twelve months) may be fixed at an
amount corresponding to a daily cash allowance for fifty days at the
rate of iod. per day ; but, as a general rule, it shall be equivalent
to a daily cash allowance of such amount as may be fixed by the
rules of the Fund for seventy days.
3 This amount shall correspond with a daily allowance of such
amount as may be provided by the rules of the Fund payable in
respect of the number of days, for which benefit can be claimed
within any twelve months, multiplied by three.
I 2
n6 INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
such member to receive any further benefit unless during
the whole of the year next following he shall have
been a member of the Fund, and shall have paid the
contribution payable by full members for this period.
Members, who during each of three successive years
shall not have worked at their trade for at least twenty-
six weeks in all, lose their right to benefit, and cannot
regain that right until they shall have worked at their
trade for at least twenty-six weeks in the course of twelve
months, and shall have paid .their contribution as full
members during twelve entire months.
10. (i) No benefit shall be paid to any person unless
and until he shall have been a member during the last
twelve months and shall have paid his contribution as a
full member.
(2) Apprentices, who are admitted to membership of
the Fund as contributing members, and who shall during
one year have paid their contribution of (5) kr. [i kr. =
is. i J^.], shall, six weeks after they shall have completed
their apprenticeship, be allowed to receive from the Fund
travelling pay, if at that time they shall be eighteen years
of age.
So far as concerns workmen not specialized (unskilled),
such workmen shall, on attaining the age of eighteen
years, be treated as if they had then completed an
apprenticeship.
(3) Persons, who are liable to bear arms, shall, during
their period of service, be exempt from paying contribu-
tion, but shall nevertheless, after they shall have
completed their service, possess the right to receive
benefit, if, at the time when such benefit is claimed,
they shall have been members for at least twelve months,
and during this period shall have paid the contribution
payable in respect of three months at the least.
(4) No right to receive benefit shall exist in respect of
the first . . . : days of unemployment. This, however,
does not apply to cases, in which the only benefit
1 The number to be inserted here must be at least six, and not more
than fifteen days. With regard, however, to workmen engaged in
seasonal trades, this may be fixed at more than fifteen days.
APPENDIX IV 117
provided is travelling pay, or to cases, in which the
member shall, during a period of unemployment, after
the commencement of the payment of the benefit, have
obtained work of a temporary nature.
ii. No benefit shall be paid by the Fund in any of
the following cases :
(1) During the pendency of strikes or lock-outs to any
persons taking part in the same.
(2) To any members, whose unemployment is due to
illness or incapacity to; perform labour, during the
continuance of such illness or incapacity.
(3) To any members, who, without sufficient cause,
shall have thrown up their existing employment, or
whose unemployment is due to alcoholic excess or to
overbearing conduct towards the foreman under, or the
fellow-workmen with, whom they work.
(4) To members, who are undergoing a judicial
sentence.
(5) To members, who are under arrest.
(6) To members, who receive any form of regular
Poor Law Relief.
(7) To members, who refuse to accept work suited to
their capacity, which may be offered to them through
the Managing Committee.
No benefit shall be paid to members during their
service with the colours.
If the Managing Committee shall refuse to grant
benefit to an unemployed member under any of the
above provisions (1-7), an appeal against such decision
may, within one month, be made to the Committee
mentioned in 18 of the Unemployment Insurance
Law, which, in giving its decision, shall take into account
the particular circumstances of the case ; from the de-
cision of that Committee an appeal may, within one
month, be made to the Minister of the Interior, whose
decision shall be final.
12. In accordance with the provisions of Section 7
of the Unemployment Insurance Law, no person may at
one and the same time possess rights of membership
in more than one officially recognized Unemployment
n8 INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
Insurance Fund. If it should occur, that any person,
at the time of his admission, is already a member of
another non-recognized Fund; or that he shall, subse-
quently to his admission, acquire membership rights in
such a Fund, he is required to notify this fact to the
Local Administration, which shall see to it, that no
member in this way secures for himself a daily cash
allowance exceeding two-thirds of his average earnings
in the occupation in which he is engaged.
Any contravention of the provisions just stated, and
also any fraud shall entail the loss of membership rights.
13. In connection with the branch or head offices
of the Fund, Labour Registries may be established, at
which it shall be the duty of the members to notify the
beginning and the end of their unemployment. The
member is required to comply with the rules in relation
to the operation of any such registry, which may be made
by the Administration of the Fund.
14. If the Fund shall have made an agreement with
another Society with respect to the reciprocal transference
of members (cf. Rule 26 below and Section 18 of the
Unemployment Insurance Law), and if its members shall
obtain employment at any place within the local area
covered by the operations of that Society, then this
member shall be required to join such Society. In case
he shall fail so to do, then upon his return he can only
be admitted as a new member in accordance with Rule
7 above.
15. No full member can refuse to accept office as
a member of the Administration of the Fund, or as
auditor; but this duty is imposed only in relation to
one single election period.
1 6. (a) If a member shall desire to cease being a
member of a Fund, he is required to give notice to the
Administration of the Fund in the course of the week
(month) as from the end of which his retirement is to
take effect.
(b) If any member shall cease to work at his trade, he
shall be allowed only to remain a member with rights
preserved (cf. Rule 4).
APPENDIX IV 119
17. The weekly (monthly) contribution for full
members is ... kr.
Extraordinary contributions shall, as and when
occasion shall arise, be levied of such amounts as may
correspond with the requirements for the time being of
the Fund.
1 8. The members are bound to pay their contributions
every week (month). If in ... successive weeks, they
shall fail to make such payments, then their membership
shall cease, and shall only begin again in such manner
as is provided by Rule 7.
19. The Commune, within which a member shall
reside, or where he shall be entitled to Poor Law relief,
shall have the right, without requiring to obtain the
sanction of any Higher Authorities, to grant assistance
towards the payment of such member's contribution for
the current year, but not to a greater amount than one-
sixth of such contribution. Its grant of such assistance
does not entail upon the recipient the consequences,
which follow upon the receipt of Poor Law relief.
Communes, in which officially recognized Unemploy-
ment Insurance Funds have their head office or
branches, shall have the right, also without requiring
to obtain the sanction of any Higher Authorities, to
grant assistance to such Fund or Funds, but so that in
no case shall such assistance amount to more than one-
sixth part of the contributions payable in the course of
the year in respect of such members of the Fund
concerned as shall have resided within the Commune
on the 3ist day of March then last.
Branches
20. In places, in which at least . . . members are
employed, there may, with the consent of the Head
Office, be formed Local Branches. In places, in which
less than . . . members are employed, there shall be
sub-branches only.
21. Local Branches shall be administered by a
Director, a cashier and . . . other persons (Committee-
120 INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
men), who shall be elected at the general meetings of
the Branch, to hold office for (one) year. In addition
(two) auditors shall be elected for the same period. The
Administration of a Branch chooses its own substitute
to take charge in the event of the Director's being
prevented by inability to do so in his absence. If the
cashier retires, a new one must be elected forthwith.
It shall be the duty of the Local Administration to
see to it, that the laws are duly carried out, and that the
instructions given by the Head Office are obeyed, and
to forward to the Head Office at the end of each month
a general report with respect to the unemployment,
which may have occurred within the area of a Branch
during the past month. At the end of each financial
year the Local Administration shall forward a concise
report with respect to the operations during the preceding
year and a list of its members, who on the 3ist of March
resided within the area covered by the operations of the
Branch. It shall be the duty of the Local Administra-
tion to see to it, that application shall be made to the
Municipality for assistance in accordance with Section 9
of the Unemployment Insurance Law, and that such
assistance as may be received shall be sent to the Head
Office of the Fund. The Local Administration shall be
responsible to the members of the Branch, and will
have to replace any money, the loss of which defective
administration may have caused to the Fund.
The members of the Branch are responsible for the
contributions, which they have paid into the Branch
Office, being duly delivered to the Head Office.
Sub-Branches are not required to keep accounts, but
are subordinated to the nearest Branch; and the con-
tributions of their members are to be sent by the end
of each month to the cashier of such Branch.
22. If the amount, which shall have been received
by means of the payment of members' contributions and
of the grant (if any) made the Municipality, shall not be
sufficient to defray the expenditure of the Branch, then
this fact must be reported to the head cashier, who then
forwards to the Branch, taking a receipt for the same,
APPENDIX IV 121
the amount of such deficiency. All requests for assist-
ance from the Head Office must be counter-signed by
both auditors, and no such request shall in any case be
made in relation to a deficiency caused by arrears of
contributions.
23. Within (two) weeks after the end of each quarter
a meeting of the Branch shall be held, at which the
accounts of the Branch for the last quarter, duly audited,
shall be laid on the table for the approval of the members,
after which such accounts shall at once be forwarded to
the Head Cashier. It is the duty of the local auditors
to assure themselves (e.g., by production of the Post
Office receipt) that the cash balance has been sent to
the Head Office, together with the balance-sheet.
24. Extraordinary general meetings may be called,
if either the Head Office or the Branch Administration
shall so desire, or if ... members shall in writing,
addressed to the Directors of the Branch and explaining
the reasons for such demand, so request.
The Head Office
25. The Head Office Administration shall consist of
one Director, one chief Cashier and (3) Committeemen
chosen by the meeting of delegates, by which also the
(2) auditors shall be appointed, together with substitutes
for all the positions. All persons so elected hold office
until the next meeting of delegates. The Administra-
tion of the Head Office chooses the substitute director.
The members of the Head Office Administration and the
auditors must reside in (Copenhagen) at which place the
Head Office of the Fund is situated.
26. The Head Office Administration, which settles
its own methods of procedure, shall meet as often as it
shall find necessary, and if at least (2) of its members
shall so request. The Head Office Administration
conducts the current business, and deliberates on all
the affairs of the Fund, always in strict accordance with
the Law and with the instructions of the Inspector of Un-
employment. It is empowered, subject to confirmation
122 INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
by the meeting of delegates, to make agreements with
other Societies in relation to reciprocal assistance
for members on travel in accordance with the rules laid
down by the Unemployment Insurance Committee (cf.
Section 18 of the Unemployment Insurance Law); all
such agreements require the sanction of the Inspector
of Unemployment, who shall have power to cancel the
same. Between one meeting of delegates and another,
it shall be lawful for the Head Office Administration to
take, in relation to questions, which demand speedy
settlement, a general vote of the members of the Fund.
The Meetings of Delegates
27. Once in every three years the Head Office
Administration shall summon a general meeting of
delegates, with which meeting shall rest the supreme
authority in relation to the internal administration of
the Fund. Such meetings shall alone have power to
make or alter (in all cases with the sanction of the
Inspector) the rules of the Fund. A report shall be
made to the meeting in relation to the operations and
finances of the Fund for the period, which shall have
elapsed subsequent to the preceding meeting, and such
proposals, of which notice has been given, shall be
considered. Each branch shall be empowered to bring
forward proposals, which must be forwarded to the
Head Office Administration at least two months prior
to the meeting. The different proposals are sent to the
branches one month at least prior to the meeting.
28. Each Branch shall be allowed to send to the
meeting of delegates one delegate for each . . . members,
and one for each subsequent . . . members, and one for
each further ... up to ... members, and one for
each . . . members in excess of . . .* All matters shall
be decided by a simple majority vote (but see Rule 38).
The members of the Head Office Administration are
ex-offido members, but shall not have the right to vote
1 The numbers to be inserted are to vary according to the
circumstances existing in each trade concerned.
APPENDIX IV 123
in relation to the confirmation or otherwise of the
proceedings of the Fund.
29. In the meeting of delegates there shall be elected
. . . representatives for Jylland, ... for Fyn, ... for
Sjselland-Bornholm, ... for Lolland-Falster, and . . .
for Copenhagen. These representatives shall once in
every year in the month of ... have a conference with
the Head Office Administration, and at such conference
resolutions concerning the operations and finances of the
Fund during the past year shall be voted upon.
These representatives shall choose from among their
own number the persons, whom the Fund is entitled to
send to represent it, in accordance with the Section 16
of the Unemployment Insurance Law, at the annual
meeting mentioned in that Section.
30. The expenses incurred in connection with the
different meetings, including the journey-money of the
delegates and representatives, compensation for the loss
of earnings, and the fees paid to them in respect of their
attendance, must be paid by the Head Office, the amount
thereof being decided at the meeting of delegates.
In the same manner the salaries of the Director and
of the Head Cashier and all other wages and salaries, as
also the grants in aid for administration purposes to the
Branches, shall be settled by the meeting of delegates,
subject to the sanction of the Inspector of Unemploy-
ment.
Accounts
31. The Head Cashier receives all the cash, which
comes in to the Head Office, and keeps the books. He
has to enter in the cash book every item of receipt and
expenditure with the respective dates of such receipts
and expenditure.
The cash in hand must not exceed (100) kr. (^5 us.
i\d.}-, any sums in excess of that amount must be paid
into a bank of good standing, or else be employed in the
purchase of safe interest-bearing securities. Both the
revenue and the capital of the Head Office must be kept
124 INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
strictly separate from the funds of other Societies, and
cannot be parted with, either by way of gift or loan, to
any other Societies, or be used for any unauthorized
purpose.
32. The Head Cashier can only draw money from
the savings-bank of the Fund, if he shall, together with
(one) member of the Head Office Administration
appointed by that Administration, have signed a cheque
made out for the amount required. The amount drawn
shall on each occasion be debited in the savings-bank
book.
33. It shall be the duty of the Head Cashier, every
month, on the basis of the information with respect to
unemployment, which he shall have received from the
branches, to draw up a general report with respect to
unemployment. In the month of April in each year he
shall draw up a balance-sheet for the preceding year
(April i to March 31). In order to receive the subven-
tion of the State, the accounts must, prior to the 3ist
day of May, be sent to the Inspector of Unemployment,
together with a report concerning the operations of the
Fund during the same period, and a list of the members
of the Fund, with a return of the contributions paid, and
a statement showing the Commune of residence of each
member on the 3ist day of March. Prior to this, the
auditors must have critically examined and revised the
accounts, and must assure themselves that the securities
and the cash-balance are forthcoming, and certify accord-
ingly. Once at least in such quarter an extraordinary
cash-inspection must take place. Together with the
accounts, the Head Cashier must draw up a balance-
sheet.
34. If the accounts are found to be in disorder, the
Head Cashier must immediately deliver to the Head
Office Administration all that belongs to the Fund.
The Head Office Administration is in such case entitled
to suspend the cashier and provisionally to employ
another in his stead.
35. The Head Office Administration shall at all
times have the right to investigate the accounts and
APPENDIX IV 125
cash in hand and to examine and supervise the book-
keeping in the branches as well as in the Head Office.
36. It is the duty of the Branches to send in the
contributions and accounts every quarter (month).
37. The reserve fund is formed of the yearly surplus,
including any extraordinary income. The reserve fund
shall be applied towards making good any deficit which
may occur in a year of depression.
If the deficit is too large to be met out of the reserve
fund alone, any excess of such deficit shall be met by
means of extraordinary contributions levied from the
full members prior to the accounts being sent in to the
Inspector of Unemployment.
38. The capital assets of, and any surplus belonging
to the Fund shall not under any circumstances be divided
up between the members. With respect to the manner,
in which, if the Fund should be dissolved, its property
shall be used, the consent of the Inspector of Unemploy-
ment must be obtained.
The . . . Unemployment Insurance Fund can only
be dissolved, if a resolution to that effect shall have been
passed, by a majority of at least three-fourths, at a meeting
of delegates, such majority having been obtained by
means of a written poll of all the members of the Fund.
39. These Rules shall come into operation upon the
day, on which the Fund shall obtain official recognition
under the Law of April 9, 1907.
The consent of the Inspector of Unemployment is
required with respect to any alteration of these Rules.
APPENDIX V
LIST OF PRINCIPAL PUBLICATIONS
DEALING WITH THE QUESTION
OF INSURANCE AGAINST UNEM-
PLOYMENT
ADLER. Article " Arbeitslosigkeit," in Handwb'rterbuch
der Staatswissenschaften.
Belgian Labour Department. Revue du Travail. Success-
ive volumes.
Bellom, Maurice. "L'assurance contre le chomage en
Danemark," in conomiste franfats, November 9,
1907, ii, p. 659.
Cormier, Crosson du. Les caisses syndicales de chomage
en France et en Belgique^ Paris, 1905.
Curti. " Die Arbeitslosenversicherung in St. Gallen und
Bern," in Braun's Archiv., vol. x.
Danish Inspector of Unemployment's Report to the
Ministry of the Interior for the year 1907-8.
(Arbejdsloshedsinspektorens Indberetning til Indenrigs-
ministeriet for Regnskabsaaret) 1907-8 i. August-
31. Marts\ Copenhagen, 1908.
David, P. L'assurance contre le cJidmage en Suisse^
Lie'ge, 1903.
Dupont, P. L assurance contre le chomage, Paris, 1908.
Dutch Statistical Office. Maandschrift van het Centraal
Bureau voor de Statistiek. Successive volumes.
Fagnot, E. Le chomage, Paris, 1905.
Falkenberg. In the Publications of the Amsterdam
Statistical Office.
French Labour Department. Bulletin de f Office du
Travail. Successive volumes.
Freund, Richard. Materialen zur Frage der Arbeitslo-
senversicherung, Berlin, 1903.
126
APPENDIX V 127
German Labour Department. Die bestehenden Einrich-
tungen zur Versicherung gegen die JFblgen der
Arbeitslosigkeit, 3 vols., Berlin, 1906.
Reichsarbeitsblatt. Successive volumes.
Guttknecht. Arbeitslosenversicherung in der Schweiz.
Zacher's Collection (Die Arbeiterversicherung im
Auslande), part xia (vol. v), p. 45, Berlin, 1908.
Hofmann. "Die Arbeitslosenversicherung in St. Gallen
and Bern," in Braun's Archiv., vol. xiii.
International Unemployment Congress. " La Disoccu-
pazione; Relazione e Discussione del primo
Congresso Internazionale per la lotta contro la
disoccupazione," 2-3 Ottobre, 1906, Milan, Societa
Umanitaria, 1906.
Italian Labour Department. Bolletino delV Ufficio del
Lavoro. Successive volumes.
Jager, Oskar. Die Arbeitslosenversicherung in Norwegen^
Zacher's Collection, part \\\b (vol. iv), p. 43-84,
Berlin, 1908.
Kruger, E. Bibliographie der Arbeitslosenfursorge, Berlin,
1904.
Landsberg, Otto, " Die bisherigen Erfahrungen auf dem
Gebiete der Arbeitslosenversicherung," in Mitt-
heilungen des Statistischen Amis der Stadt Magde-
burg, Magdeburg, 1908.
Las Cases, Ph. de. L' assurance contre le chomage en-
Allemagne, Paris, 1906.
Leo, Victor. "Die Grundprobleme der Arbeitslosen-
versicherung," in Zeitschrift fur Versicherungswis-
sennschaft, October 1906.
" Zur neueren Entwicklung der Arbeitslosenversi-
cherung," in the same Journal, October 1907.
,, "Die Hauptprobleme der Arbeitslosenversi-
cherung," in Zeitschrift filr Vergleichende Staats-und
Rechtswissenschaft, December 1906.
"Les derniers essais d'Assurance Chomage,"
Bulletin du Comite Permanent des Congrh
Internationaux des Assurances Sociales, January-
April 1908.
" Examen critique de 1'evolution contemporaire en
128 INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT
matiere d'assurance centre le chomage," in Revue
economique Internationale^ May 1908.
Lindberg. " Forsikring mod Arbejdsloshed i. Danmark."
" Arbejdsloshedsforsikringen i. Danmark," in Tid-
skrift for Arbejderforsikring, 1905 and 1906.
Magaldi, Vincenzo. " Arbeitslosenversicherung in Italian,"
in Zacher's Collection, part vi< (vol v), pp. 14-16.
Mangold. " Die Arbeitslosigkeit in Basel," 3 Reports.
Marchetti, Livio. Sistemi di defesa contro la disoccupa-
zione, Milan, 1908.
Matschappij tot Nat vant Allgemeen. Verzettering
tegen de gevolge van Werkloosheid, Amsterdam,
1903.
Millerand. Rapport a la Chambre des Deputes fait au
nom de la Commission d'assurance et de prevoyance
sociales, October 21, 1905. Parl. Doc. No. 1982.
Reichesberg. " Arbeitslosenversicherung," in Handwor-
terbuch der Schweizerischen Volkswirtschaft.
Roussel, E. " Municipalites et chomage involontaire,"
in Aide Sociale^ 1907-1908, p. 219.
Schanz, Georg. Zur Frage der Arbeitslosenversicherung^
Bamberg, 1895; N* ue Beitrage^ Berlin, 1897;
Dritter Beitrag, Berlin, 1901.
Schloss, D. F. "Report to the Board of Trade on
Agencies and Methods for dealing with the Unem-
ployed in certain Foreign Countries," (Cd. 2304),
London, 1904.
Seguin, J. 1} assurance contre le chomage^ Paris, 1903.
Singer, K. Die Schaffung eines gemeindlichen Fonds zur
Forderung der Arbeitslosenversicherung^ i, Munich,
1903; ii, Munich, 1905; die Arbeitslosenversicherung
der Bauarbeiter, Munich, 1905.
Societa Umanitaria (Milan). Contro la disoccupazione^
Milan, 1905.
Spender, Harold. "Unemployment Insurance," in
Contemporary Review^ January 1909.
Trap, Cordt. Arbejdslosedforsikring, Copenhagen, 1907.
United States. Bulletin of the Bureau of Labour, No.
76, May 1908, pp. 829-843.
Varlez, Louis. Ville de Gand. Commission speciak
APPENDIX V 129
pour F etude de la question du chomage. Rapport et
projet de regkment, Ghent, 1901.
" Die Kommunalversicherung gegen Arbeitslosig-
keit in Gent," in Braun's Archiv.
, , Les formes nouvelles de f assurance con tre le chomage^
Paris, 1003.
" Die Bekampfung der unfreiwilligen Arbeitslosig-
keit," in Sociale Kultur, 1908.
" L'assurance centre le chomage," in Bulletin de
la Federation des Industriels et Commer^ants fran^ais^
No. 56, May 1908, p. 291.
Annual Reports of the Ghent Municipal Unem-
ployment Insurance Fund.
Vivier, P. 1} assurance contre le chomage involontaire^
Paris, 1908.
Zacher. " Die Arbeiterversicherung in Danemark," in
his Collection already referred to, part \a (vol. ii),
pp. 30-45, Berlin, 1908.
INDEX
NOTE. In this Index " Insurance" means Insurance against Unemployment.
AGEN, Insurance at, 40
Alais, Insurance at, 40
Albert, Insurance at, 40
Amersfoort, Insurance at, 39
Amiens, Insurance at, 40
Amsterdam, Insurance at, 21,
38, 39
Antwerp (City), Insurance at, 21
Antwerp (Province), Insurance
in, 31
Appenzell (Canton), Insurance
in, 26
Arbeiterversicherung in Dane-
mark^ Die, referred to, 63
Armentieres, Insurance at, 40
Arnhem, Insurance at, 21, 38,
39
Asnieres, Insurance at, 40
Aude (Department), Insurance
in, 40
BALE, Insurance at, 20, 25, 26
Belgium, Insurance in, 21, 30-
Berne, Insurance at, 20-25
Berne, Insurance Fund, Rules
and Bye-laws of, 82-88
Beziers, Insurance at, 40
Black, Clara, 59
Board of Trade, Report on
Foreign Unemployed referred
to, 8
Brabant (Province), Insurance
in, 31
Bulletin du Comitl Permanent
des Congres Internationmtx
des Assurances Sociales re-
ferred to, 30
Bussum, Insurance at, 39
CASTRES, Insurance at, 40
Central Federation of Danish
Trade Unions, 71
Chalons-sur-Marne, Insurance
at, 40
Champigny, Insurance at, 40
Charitable Subventions to Insur-
ance Funds, 7, 27, 28, 35
Cher (Department), Insurance
in, 40
Cherbourg, Insurance at, 40
Clerks' Trade Union (Paris),
48
Cologne, Insurance at, 20, 27-
29
Compulsory Insurance (see In-
surance, Compulsory)
Copenhagen, Municipality of,
subvention to Insurance
Funds, 68
Correspondenzblatt der General-
kommission der Gewerksch of-
ten Deutschlands referred to,
55
DENMARK, Insurance in, 21,
5 6 -7i
Denmark, Insurance Funds,
Model Rules of, 112-125
Denmark, Insurance Funds,
Laws, Text of, loo-in (see
also 70)
130
INDEX
Denmark, Sick Funds, 58, 59
Dijon, Insurance at, 40
Dubois, M., 32
EMPLOYERS, Contributions by,
to Insurance Funds, 7, 24
Engineers, Federation of
(French), 46
Exchange (Labour) (see Labour
Exchange)
FEDERATION of Engineers
(French) (see Engineers)
Federation of Lithographers
(French) (see Lithographers)
Federation of Printers (French)
(see Printers)
Federations of Trade Unions
(Norwegian), 53, 54
Flandre Orientale (Province),
Insurance in, 31
France, Insurance in, 21, 39-49
GANGES, Insurance at, 40
Card (Department), Insurance
in, 40
Geneva, Insurance at, 26
German Labour Department,
Report on Insurance referred
to, 8
Germany, Accident Insurance in,
Germany, Unemployment Insur-
ance in, 27-30, 36-38
Germany, Invalidity Insurance
in, 3
Germany, Lock-outs, Treatment
of, in, 3
Germany, Sickness Insurance in,
Ghent, Insurance at, 21, 30, 31
Groningen, Insurance at, 39
HAARLEM, Insurance at, 39
Hague, The, Insurance at, 39
Hainaut (Province), Insurance
in, 31
Haubourdin, Insurance at, 40
Hilversum, Insurance at, 38, 39
Holland, Insurance in, 21, 38, 39
Humanitarian Society (Milan),
35
INSURANCE, Compulsory, 8-19
Insurance, Different Types of,
5-7
Insurance, Voluntary, 20-71
Insurance, What is meant by,
i-7
Issoudun, Insurance at, 40
Italy, Insurance in, 20, 21, 26,
27, 35, 36
LABOUR Exchanges, 19, 22, 28,
29, 32, 36, 37, 43, 5 2 , 73, 78,
80, 81, 83, 85, 86, 91, 96, 97,
118
Labour Gazette referred to, 56
La Roche-sur-Yon, Insurance
at, 40
La Rochelle, Insurance at, 40
Leipsic, Insurance at, 20, 29,
30
Leo, Dr., 30
Leyden, Insurance at, 39
Liege (Province), Insurance in,
31
Limoges, Insurance at, 21, 40
Lithographers, Federation of
(French), 46, 47
Loire (Department), Insurance
in, 40
Lunel, Insurance at, 40
Luxemburg, Insurance at, 21
Lyons, Insurance at, 40
MAcoN, Insurance at, 40
Milan, Insurance at, 21, 35, 36
Montlu9on, Insurance at, 40
NAMUR (Province), Insurance
. in, 3 1
Narbonne, Insurance at, 40
National Labour Union (Nor-
wegian), 53
Neuville-sur-S&one, Insurance
at, 40
Norway, Insurance in, 21, 49-56
'32
INDEX
Norway, Insurance Laws, Text
of, 93-99
Nymegen, Insurance at, 39
PARIS Clerks' Trade Union, 48
Politiken referred to, 68
Printers, Federation of (French),
46, 47
Publications dealing with Insur-
ance, List of, 126-129
REGISTRY (Labour) (see Labour
Exchanges)
Reichsarbeitsblatt referred to, 7,
Relief Works, 22, 28, 83
Revue du Travail referred to,
35
Rheims, Insurance at, 21, 40
Roanne, Insurance at, 40
Roubaix, Insurance at, 40
SAINT-JUNIEN, Insurance at,
40
Savings supplemented, 7
Sick Funds, Danish, 58, 59, 101,
102, 108, 112, 113
Sociale Praxis referred to, 7,
55, 56, 63
Soerensen, Mr., 65, 67, 69, 71
St. Gall, Insurance at, 8-19
Strassburg, Insurance at, 21,
36,38
Strassburg, Insurance Fund,
Regulations relating to, 88-
92
Switzerland, Insurance in, 7, 8-
26
Sygekassenloven referred to, 59
TARBES, Insurance at, 40
Trap, Mr. Cordt, 70
UNEMPLOYMENT, Different
Types of, 1-5
Utrecht, Insurance at, 21, 38,
39
VENICE, Insurance at, 20, 26,
27
Vierzon-village, Insurance at,
40
Vierzon-ville, Insurance at, 40
ZAANDAM, Insurance at, 39
Zacher, Dr., 63
Zeist, Insurance at, 39
Zeitschrift fur Schweizerische
Statistik referred to, 26
'fp
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