§ MR. GEORGE ROBERTS (Norwich)To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he is aware that a Grange-mouth employer of dock labour has dismissed certain men because they have instituted legal proceedings against him to secure the short payment of wages which he has withheld from them on the piece work system; and if he contemplates any action to prevent employers taking such action against men who are demanding simple justice.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Gladstone.) I have seen the letter which the hon. Member has been good enough to send me on the subject of the case referred to in the Question. The matter is outside the powers conferred by the Factory Act, and there is no action which it is possible for me to take to protect workmen, but the question of checking piecework wages in dock labour has been the subject of inquiry by a Departmental Committee, who have now reported, and I hope next session to introduce legislation which will place the workers in a different position in this matter.