§ 82. Mr. CHARLES PRICEasked the Home Secretary whether he is aware that assistants in wholesale warehouses attached to retail shops have no weekly half-holiday, and are compelled to work every evening until 6 or 7 p.m.; and whether, 1489 in these circumstances, he is prepared to consider an amendment to the Shops Act whereby these assistants will enjoy the benefits conferred on the retail assistants by the Act?
§ Mr. McKENNANo representations have reached me with regard to any case of the kind, and I am not quite clear as to what is meant by a wholesale warehouse attached to a retail shop. The provisions of the Act in general, however, do not apply to wholesale trade, and if the reference is to cases in which an occupier carries on in the same building both a wholesale department and a retail department, it would I think be the case that persons employed in the wholesale department would not be entitled to a weekly half-holiday. I am afraid it is much too early yet to consider the question of the extension of the Act.