§ 59. Viscount WOLMERasked the Secretary to the Treasury whether the regulations issued by the Insurance Commissioners provide that in the lock and hinge trade the master-men employing journeymen, and doing contract work for big firms on their own premises, are not to be considered as employers under the National Insurance Act, but that the big firms are to have that responsibility; and whether in the forging of blades and tools trade the Insurance Commissioners have decided that the main employers are not to be considered as employers under the National Insurance Act, but that each forger is the employer of his striker; and what distinction there is in the two trades between the relative position of a master-man and a forger which has given rise to this dissimilarity of treatment?
§ Mr. MASTERMANThe same regulations under Part I. of the Act are applicable to the two cases referred to in the question. These regulations provide that where persons engaged by a sub-contractor in a factory or workshop within the meaning of the Factory and Workshop Act, 1901, work under the general control and management of the occupier of the factory or workshop, the latter, and not the sub-contractor, shall be responsible for the insurance contributions.
§ Viscount WOLMERAre we to understand that no distinction has been drawn between the master and the forger?
§ Mr. MASTERMANThere is no distinction in the regulations. It would depend whether they were under the general control of the master.