MR. J. W. TAYLOR Durham, Chester-le-Street)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether lie is aware that orders hitherto made under Section 116 of the Factory Act 1901, relating to particulars of rates of payment in home industries, leave it open to employers either to affix a list of prices or to supply the particulars of prices to each outworker; and whether, seeing that this system has enabled employers to pay different prices for the same class of work, thus facilitating the establishment of the lowest price paid as the sweating rate, he will consider the advisability of utilising the powers conferred by this section by requiring employers to both affix and supply such particulars.
§ *MR. GLADSTONEThe employer has no such option in the case of out-workers as my hon. friend thinks. Particulars of prices have to be supplied to each outworker in writing. With regard to the suggestion he makes, I am advised that I should have no power, in an order extending the requirements of Section 116 of the Factory Act, to carry it out. The section itself, in its general 698 application, requires only a placard or a wages note, and not both; and in extending that requirement to other trades the only modifications that may be introduced are such as may be necessary to adapt the requirement to the circumstances of the particular trade.