HC Deb 21 October 1915 vol 74 cc1979-80
16. Mr. PRATT

asked the Minister of Munitions if he will state what arrangement he proposes to make for the remuneration of women on munitions work who are prevented from working owing to breakdown, air raid, or other causes beyond their control?

The MINISTER of MUNITIONS (Mr. Lloyd George)

Provision to meet these points is made in the second paragraph of the recommendations to the Munitions Labour Supply Committee relating to the employment and remuneration of women on munition work, which reads as follows: Where women are prevented from working, owing to breakdown, air raid, or other cause beyond their control, they shall be paid for the time so lost at the rate of 15s. a week, unless they are sent home.

Mr. SNOWDEN

Do you provide that women should be paid in case they are compulsorily idle, through, say, an air raid, as occurred recently?

Mr. LLOYD GEORGE

I rather think that there is another question directed to that point.

19 and 20. Mr. ARNOLD

asked the Minister of Munitions (1) what steps he has taken to carry out the undertaking embodied in Schedule II. of the Munitions of War Act that the employment of women on munitions work shall not prejudice the remuneration of the men customarily engaged on such work; and (2) what steps he has taken to carry out the undertaking embodied in Schedule II. of the Munitions of War Act that the employment of semiskilled and unskilled men on munition work of a class which, prior to the War, was customarily undertaken by skilled labour shall not prejudice the remuneration of the men previously engaged on such work?

Mr. LLOYD GEORGE

It would be a violation of the spirit and the letter of the Munitions Act if the employment of women or unskilled men on munitions work should be utilised for the purpose of lowering the remuneration of men customarily engaged on that class of work. The provisions of the Second Schedule to the Munitions of War Act have repeatedly been brought to the notice of the employers concerned by means of circulars and otherwise. They have also, through the National Advisory Committee on War Output, been brought to the notice of the trade unions concerned, who have been invited to call the attention of the Ministry to any cases in which it appeared that the provisions of the Schedule were being infringed. As a result of this, the Ministry is in constant correspondence with employers and otherwise with a view to enforcing the provisions of the Schedule. Recently, moreover, the question of the wages to be paid to women employed on work which was not recognised as women's work before the War, and to semi-skilled and unskilled men on shell making and similar processes, has been the subject of consideration by the Munitions Labour Supply Committee, of which my right hon. Friend the President of the Board of Education is chairman. As a result, a statement of the wages recommended by the Committee to be paid in such cases has been prepared. It will be adopted for all establishments for which the Ministry is directly responsible, and will be recommended for favourable consideration to all other establishments engaged on such work.