§ Mr. BOWERMANasked the hon. Member for Southampton, as representing the First Commissioner of Works, whether he was aware that when the Fair-Wages Resolution was before this House in 1909 the President of the Board of Trade declared that in the administration of the Clause regard would be had to the wages and conditions of service of all the employés of a firm of contractors, and that for a contractor to simply observe the Clause so far as his workmen directly engaged on the contract were concerned would not be sufficient; whether he was aware that, in reply to a complaint that the firm of Tozer and Sons, contractors for the cartage of coal, were not observing the Fair-Wage Clause in the payment of the wheelwrights and painters in their employ, the policy adumbrated by the President of the Board of Trade was not endorsed; whether he was aware that a wheelwright employed by the firm in question on the carts used for cartage of coal had been discharged for making a request to be paid the trade union rate; and whether he would have further inquiries made into this case with a view to the Fair-Wages Clause and the Government's declared policy in regard thereto being carried out?
Mr. DUDLEY WARDIn the Debate on 10th March, 1909, on the Fair-Wages Resolution of this House, the President of the Board of Trade stated that:—"The Fair-Wages Resolution applies as a legal obligation only to workers engaged on the Government contract in question." Firms who are notoriously bad employers in other directions are not employed by the Office of Works. The First Commissioner has inquired into the dismissal of the wheelwright referred to; and he is satisfied that the man was not dismissed for demanding the trade union rate of wages. Having regard to the information at his disposal, the First Commissioner is of 2359 opinion that the firm in question are not violating the Fair-Wages Clause of their contract.
§ Mr. CLYNESIn connection with the inquiries, was the trade union in question approached?