Colt Ventilation and Heating Ltd
On 27 December 1967, Fred Price (Marketing Director of Colt Ventilation and Heating Ltd) sent out a memo headed "General progress report" which assessed the company's economic prospects. Inspired by Boyd-Carpenter, he wrote that the balance of payments deficit would disappear overnight if the working population of the United Kingdom worked a five-and-a-half day week without demanding higher incomes for the extra half day. Price said that Britain would become once more the wealthiest country in the world.
The memo was received by five secretaries working in the company's head office in Surbiton, Valerie White, Joan Southwell, Carol Ann Fry, Christine French and Brenda Mumford. The next morning, they discussed it and Southwell said that she was willing to work an extra half day a week. The others agreed, and White took the initiative of writing a reply (which she gave reference VW/OD GEN); the reply said "What about starting this scheme of a five-and-a-half-day week? Let us be the first company to start the ball rolling." After discussing with the other members of staff, on 29 December the 240 employees at the head office voted to report for work at 8.30 a.m. instead of 9 a.m. They also made contact with the workers employed at the company's factory in Havant, Hampshire to encourage them to do the same.
Read more about this topic: I'm Backing Britain
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