§ 40. Mr. COWANasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will indicate the extent to which the Sunday employment of women and young persons is at present authorised in munition factories; and what steps are being taken to restrict it within the narrowest-possible limits?
§ The UNDER-SECRETARY Of STATE for the HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. Brace)The Sunday employment of women and young persons is allowed only under Special Exemption Orders, and these Orders are granted by the Home Office only for two purposes, namely, to expedite work of an exceptionally urgent character, or to enable continuous processes to be carried on. Apart from a few cases where authority has been given to work on a Sunday in the event of a breakdown of machinery or similar emergency 1523 the total number of Exemption Orders in force on the 1st of this month was forty-six. In nineteen of these the permission given is subject to a condition that each worker employed on Sunday shall be given a holiday on another day in the same week. In fifteen cases the Sunday employment is part of a system of eight-hour shifts, in which provision is made for weekly or fortnightly periods of rest. In the remaining cases, with one exception, employment is not permitted on every Sunday. Every effort is made to restrict these Exemptions as narrowly as possible. Each application is carefully inquired into by the Factory Inspectors, and, wherever necessary, it is referred for consideration to the Hours of Labour Committee appointed for the special purpose of advising the Ministry of Munitions and the Home Office on this and similar questions.
§ Colonel Lord HENRY CAVENDISH-BENTINCKIs the hon. Gentleman aware that Government factory inspectors have great difficulty in persuading private firms to abandon Sunday labour inasmuch as Government factories themselves are working on Sundays?