Sawmiller's timesheet - Riddoch of Rothiemay
Image courtesy of Charlie Smith, Huntly.
Sawmill time sheet for Charlie Smith, Sawmiller at Lochdhu site
Charlie Smith, a sawyer, worked for the timber firm of Riddochs of Rothiemay who managed a series of mobile saw mills over much of Northeast Scotland. By 1960 the mobile mills were single bench constructions usually driven by a farm tractor via a side pulley and long belt. This had evolved from earlier days when sawmills were often double benched and driven by steam engines.
At this period and previously, the employee contractor relationship within the Riddoch’s Timber business was somewhat blurred, a situation replicated throughout other timber businesses, in Northeast Scotland anyway.
When a saw mill site was set up in any locality it became a mini business whereby the sawmiller was the main contractor and was paid by the volume of products that he produced. There was an agreed rate for each of the range of products. However the sawmiller was responsible for cost of and in charge of the other mill workers working at the mill and sometimes also the fellers who felled the timber, those that dragged the timber to the mill.
Fortnightly the stocks of the mill products would be assessed and the sheets sent into Riddoch’s Office for the sawmiller’s business earnings calculation. The time sheets, above, would also be sent in to the office and the pay of all the contractor/employees assisting the sawmiller would be calculated and then taken from the sawmiller’s business earnings. The office staff would also make up and provide the cash for the worker’s pay envelopes as well as the amount left to pay the sawmiller once any other costs such as hires were taken into account.
Noticed that there is a second column headed ‘Working for Firm’ which shows hours that the contractors worked at jobs such as setting up the mill at a new site for which the Riddochs firm paid an hourly rate. The sawmiller also submitted timesheets as above and was also paid a time rate for any work shifting or repairing the mill.
Groups: Forestry Records, Booklets and Reports, Sawmills, pulp mills, chipboard mills