Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. an unpleasant person, esp. a miser or skinflint; also as collective n.

1853		Dickens ‘Slang’ Household Words 24 Sept. 75/2: A low person is a snob, a sweep, and a scurf, and in Scotland, a gutter-blood.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 18/1: ‘There’s a scurf!’ said one; ‘He’s a regular scab,’ cried another.
1870		Longfellow Dante’s Inferno xv iii n.p.: That wretched crowd... If thou had hadst an hankering for such scurf [F&H].
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 71: Scurf, a mean fellow.
1900		E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 58: scurf, n. An epithet used to annoy a person or class.

2. an employer who pays less than average wages.

1861

(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 34/2: They neither pay nor treat the boys well, I am told, and are looked upon by the other costermongers as extortioners, or unfair dealers [...] These men are called ‘Scurfs’.

3. a worker who accepts less than the average rate .

1861

(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor III 263/2: The scurfs are looked upon as, in many respects, the refuse of the trade.