§ MR. J. WILLIAMS BENNTo ask the Secretary to the Admiralty whether he is aware that in Government works carried out at the Royal Naval Hospital, Stonehouse, masons have been employed to do the work of plasterers, and that the premium system has been adopted with regard to such work; and whether such conditions are consistent with the trades union rules agreed between masters and men in these trades outside the dockyards.
(Answered by Mr. Edmund Robertson.) Masons have been employed to do the work of plasterers in certain cases where the work consisted of patching and jobbing, i.e., where a mason did cutting-out of brickwork or masonry, etc., he made good the plastering as well, and so finished the job on which he started. As regards the second part of the Question, the premium system has not been adopted in the case of such jobbing work previously mentioned, but it has been adopted in regard to plastering done by plasterers on new work. With regard to the last part of the Question, it is believed that the premium system is not employed by firms in the building trade in the Plymouth district; but as the men cannot lose but only stand to gain by this system, it is not considered that its adoption is in any way inconsistent with the rules agreed between masters and men.