63. Mr. TYSON WILSONasked the President of the Board of Trade whether his attention has been called to the action of the Caledonian Railway Company, who, when the National Insurance Act came into operation, refused to comply with Part II. of the Act, and declined to accept unemployment books from the joiners, plumbers, slaters, painters, and glaziers employed by the company; whether he is aware that the company on the 9th instant posted a notice at their works informing the workmen in the above trades that it had been decided that they must become insured under Part II. of the Act, that they must procure unemployment books forthwith, and that they must pay up all arrears from the time the Act came into operation at the rate of 2s. 6d. per fortnight; whether he can state who decided that these men should come under the provisions of the Act; and whether they can be compelled to pay up all the arrears from the time the Act came into operation, or whether they should only pay contributions from the date the decision was given that they came under the Act?
§ Mr. BURNSThe Caledonian Railway Company disputed their liability to pay contributions under Part II. of the National Insurance Act in respect of the classes of workmen referred to by my hon. Friend, and after lengthy correspondence application was finally made to the Umpire for a specific decision, which was communicated to the company on the 16th May last, and was to the effect that contributions were payable in respect of the classes of workmen in question. The points raised in the last part of my hon. Friend's question are not free from difficulty, and I cannot say more at the present moment than that I am giving them careful consideration.