Checkweighman

A checkweighman (occasionally checkmeasurer or checkweigher) is a person who is responsible for weighing coal or another mined substance, and thereby determining the payment due to each worker.

Checkweighmen appointed by the colliery management were often accused of underestimating weights, or even working with scales which they knew to produce incorrect values.

[6][7] Because a checkweighman had been elected and was trusted by the workers at the mine, the position was often held by people who became prominent trade unionists or politicians.

Additional duties were often combined with the post; for example, in the UK, checkweighmen were given the right to act as Inspectors of Mines, further increasing their power.

[8] Later in the 20th century, many miners were paid a fixed wage rather than by weight of coal, and so in these cases the position of checkweighman became unnecessary and was abolished.