§ MR. CROOKS (Woolwich)To ask the Secretary to the Admiralty whether, notwithstanding the promise of the Government that it would receive applications and complaints from the unions direct or the officials of the unions, he has declined to enter into correspondence with, or to confer with such an official who recently wrote to the Admiralty on behalf of the men, the reason given being that he was in the employ of the Admiralty; and, seeing that no such refusal has been made in any other State Department, whether he will take steps to enter into communication with this official, as desired.
§ (Answered by Mr. Edmund Robertson.) In the case to which I understand the hon. Members refers, the union is not a trades union as I understand the term, i.e., a union representing workers in the particular trade, but an association of the employees in a particular Government establishment. The secretary of this association wrote to me personally, and in reply I drew his attention to the dockyard regulations, in which it is laid down that all representations should be sent to the superintendent through the principal officers, and not to members of the Board direct. If any employee in 981 an Admiralty establishment has any personal grievance, or desires to put forward any general application on behalf of the men, it will be considered by the Admiralty if forwarded through the customary channels. The Admiralty are not prepared to modify the existing regulations on this point, and I do not see that they conflict in any way with the pledge which I gave to the House in the course of the debate on the 1st March. I may remind the hon. Member that men employed in the Navy yards have a recognised method of bringing their grievances direct to the Board in the annual petitions which they may make.