MR. FIELDI beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether the electrical department of the Houses of Parliament has refused to pay and observe the conditions that are recognised and current outside; and whether an employee was discharged because he asked for the current rate of pay?
§ MR. AKERS DOUGLASThe answer to the first paragraph of the honourable Member's Question is in the negative. With regard to the second portion, I cannot find that any employee at the Houses of Parliament was discharged on the grounds stated; but one employee, working for a contractor under the Office of Works in electric lighting at St. Stephen's House, was recently discharged on account of the unsatisfactory quality of his work, but not for the reason stated in this Question.