Social Welfare in the British and West German Coal Industries

The provision of social welfare facilities and the establishment of welfare funds by individual companies is common in advanced industrial countries, but welfare funds on an industry-wide basis are still rare, and welfare arrangements as extensive as in the coal industry rarer still.

The development of social welfare and supplementary benefit programmes for coal miners and their families is therefore of international significance.

Examining the British and West German coal industries, which provide examples of a developing concern for the human dimension in industry, this work focuses on industrial social policy, industrial decline and welfare, employment and the labour market.