Forward Radiator – Part 3

Weekly staff were paid on a Friday morning, supervisors and management were paid by cheque direct into their bank account about 10 days before the end of each month, that was to allow for post, cheque clearance by the bank. forward radiator bordesley green

Pay rises were implemented in April, the start of the new financial year. The factory wages were put up on a Thursday by 4 wages women. It all had to balance out at the end . The total wage bill for the week was worked out by computers at head office in Coventry, Mr Digger the works accountant received computer sheets that showed all the pay for each factory and staff worker for the week just gone.

When Securicor delivered the cash on a Thursday it was bought into his office by armed guards. The total amount was on computer sheets so when the wages women finished putting up the wage packets the money had to balance out, if there was say £5 over left, or £5 under short, then it all had to be checked again by going through the wage packets again, Mr Digger and the wages supervisor John Holden had to be notified as well as Mr Mason company secretary, all three used to give a hand in checking the wage packets.

Mr Digger paid us on a Friday morning, you had to check the packet before breaking seal, the notes were folded over the edge of the brown pay packet , so you could count them without opening the pay packet, so you could not say you were £10 short! You could see the coins through round holes in the back of the packet. Inside was a long pay slip produced by the computer, in those days all records had to be kept on huge reels of magnetic tape which were run through computers at high speed, the technology was not available then to keep records on microchip, once the computer was turned of the memory was lost.

Michael John Newcombe.
Forward Radiator – Bordesley Green