HC Deb 05 June 1940 vol 361 cc847-9
Mr. Lawson

(by Private Notice) asked the Lord Privy Seal whether he can make any statement on the proposals of the Government as regards the regulation of the engagement of workers?

The Lord Privy Seal (Mr. Attlee)

Under the powers conferred on him by Defence Regulation 58A, my right hon. Friend the Minister of Labour and National Service has made an Order regulating the engagement of workers in the engineering, building, and civil engineering industries, and of male workers in agriculture and coal-mining. The object of the Order is to prevent interference with production in engineering, building, and civil engineering by unnecessary movement of workers and to enable our labour resources to be directed to the points at which the needs are greatest and most urgent. As regards agriculture and coal-mining, the object is to retain the workers at present engaged in these industries and to bring back those formerly employed in them when they fall out of employment elsewhere. The Order requires the engagement of workers in the engineering, building, and civil engineering industries to be made, subject to certain exceptions, through an Employment Exchange or appropriate trade union. It further prescribes that, with certain exceptions, male workers whose normal employment is employment in the coal-mining industry or in agriculture shall not be engaged otherwise than for work in coal-mining or agriculture, as the case may be, unless the engagement is made through the Employment Exchange; a similar restriction as regards future engagements is applied to male workers now employed outside coal-mining or agriculture but who hold unemployment books showing that they were formerly employed in coal-mining or agriculture. Agriculture is defined so as to include forestry and horticulture.

The restrictions imposed by the Order do not apply to a re-engagement by a former employer after an absence of not more than 14 days, or after an absence of 14 days in addition to a period of sickness when the former engagement was terminated owing to that sickness; nor do they apply to re-engagements after the termination of a stoppage of work due to a trade dispute. The workers to whom the Order applies do not include persons employed as managers, salesmen, or clerks (other than costing clerks, progress clerks, and draughtsmen) or in domestic service, for example, as canteen attendants, or attendants at pithead baths. The Order comes into force on Monday, 10th June. Copies of the Order are being made available to members immediately.

Mr. Lambert

Can my right hon. Friend say how workers who have left farms can be brought back to the farms from Government work?

Mr. Attlee

By giving them an adequate wage.

Mr. Lawson

Do I take it that when a worker falls out of work in his present employment he has to go back to the employment in which he was really trained?

Mr. Attlee

Perhaps the hon. Gentleman will look at the details of the Regulation.

Mr. Buchanan

In his reply the right hon. Gentleman stated that for 14 days a man was not to be allowed to transfer to a new industry. Will he tell us what "a new industry" means? There is a conflict of opinion as to what that means. Does it mean the motor industry or the shipbuilding industry, or what?

Mr. Attlee

Perhaps the hon. Gentleman would look at the Regulations and then put down a detailed Question.

Mr. Buchanan

But is the right hon. Gentleman aware that this Regulation is to come into operation at once and that there is no time to put down questions?

Mr. Attlee

It will come into operation on Monday next.

Mr. Henderson Stewart

Did my right hon. Friend really mean that the way farmers have to get men back is to bribe them with high wages? Surely there is a better answer to the question. How are you to get back on to the farms workers who have been taken into Government work with infinitely higher wages?

Mr. Maxton

Is this the first Regulation issued under the new Emergency Powers which we gave the other week or is it one arising out of former Emergency Powers? If this is under the new Regulations is this the only Regulation that we are to have on this subject, or are we to have a list of them, and if so when are we to expect it?

Mr. Attlee

The hon. Member will realise that there have been several Regulations under the new powers; there have been several by my right hon. Friend the Minister of Supply.

Mr. George Griffiths

Will the Lord Privy Seal see to it that as far as the miners are concerned they will not be suppressed by the managers, as they were during the last war, and threatened if they stand up to them?

Mr. Maxton

On this question of procedure, can the Minister say when these Regulations by the Minister of Supply have been issued?—because each day since the Emergency Powers were granted I have asked at the Vote Office for the Regulations issued and so far I have had none.

Mr. Gordon Macdonald

In the preparation of these Regulations are consultations held with both sides of the industries involved?

Mr. Attlee

Yes, Sir. My hon. Friend the Minister of Labour has been in full consultation with both sides of the industry in every case. In reply to the other question, I am afraid I cannot carry in my mind exactly when they were made, but if the hon. Member will put the question down I will give him the information.