§ MR. SHACKLETON (Lancashire, Clitheroe)To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department upon what representations he decided to issue the Special Exception (Overtime) Order with regard to the employment of women in the making up of any article of table linen, bed linen, or other household linen, and processes incidental thereto; and whether the Home Office took any steps to inquire what were the views of the workers concerned, either by communicating with the Textile Operatives Society of Ireland, the Belfast Trades Council, or with any other labour organisation in the districts affected by the Order.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Akers-Douglas.) It was brought to my notice last year that overtime was being worked in certain places in Ireland in the processes referred to, and inquiry showed that the practice had been in existence for many years, that the particular processes were carried on to a large extent in the same places, by the same classes of operatives, and under much the same conditions as other similar processes in which overtime was legal, and that the operatives concerned would strongly object to any interference with the practice. I informed the manufacturers that the practice could not be continued without an Order under the Factory Act; and, on an application being made for such an Order, I caused a draft Order to be published for forty days in accordance with the provisions of the Rules Publication Act. No objections having been sent to me within that period, I decided to make the Order. I may point out that textile workers were not concerned, as the 471 Order applies only to non-textile factories and workshops.