§ 40. Mr. ROWLANDSasked the President of the Board of Trade whether he has received complaint from the Dartford and District Trades Council in regard to the following cases: Mr. J. A. Fraser on 19th May and Mr. W. T. M. Trust on 20th May, who, on applying to the Gravesend Labour Exchange, were refused information as to the names of the firms to which they were referred for employment, and on account of their declining to go because no information was given their society were informed that their unemployed benefit was suspended from the above dates, and subsequently Fraser, again being unemployed, applied to the Exchange on 12th June, when a similar case arose; whether he will have the facts of these cases thoroughly inquired into; whether information will in future be given to applicants so that they know whether, as trade union men, it is any use their applying; and whether he will see that in future refusal to go on trade union grounds will not mean suspension from benefit?
The PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY to the BOARD of TRADE (Mr. Robertson)I received a letter on Tuesday from the Dartford and District Trades Council on this subject. I understand that the workmen in question declined to consider any employment in the district in which it was offered them, and that, therefore, no useful purpose would have been served by furnishing them with the names of particular employers in that district. A workman is, of course, always informed of an employer's name and of the conditions of employment offered before he is sent to a distance. The workmen referred to are members of an association with which the 1211 Board of Trade have made an arrangement under Section 105 of the National Insurance Act, and ample machinery is provided for deciding any differences that may arise under that arrangement as to the qualification of any member of the association to receive unemployment benefit under the Act. Up to the present the association have not taken any steps to put this machinery in motion in the present case, but I will see that their attention is again called to the matter. As regards the last part of my hon. Friend's question, the workman is protected by the proviso to Section 86 of the Act, of which I am sending my hon. Friend a copy.
§ Mr. ROWLANDSIs not the statement of the men and their charge against the Department that they did not receive this information, and therefore they could not judge at once whether the houses come within the trade union rule, and that is what they want the inquiry about?