§ 107. Mr. SNOWDENasked the Minister of Munitions if it is by his instructions that men finally rejected for the Army and men who have been discharged from the Army are being dismissed from the works of Loders and Nucoline, Albert Mills, Hammersmith, and their places taken by women at a lower wage; and if, this being a controlled establishment, he will put a stop to this practice?
§ Dr. ADDISONMy right hon. Friend has issued general instructions to controlled establishments that wherever the nature of the work permits female labour should be substituted for male labour in order to leave the latter available for work of a class which cannot be performed by women. In this case, eleven men and nine boys were released and twenty-five women employed to do the same work. I understand that four of these men had been rejected for military service, and for these employment can be found by the Ministry of Munitions. None of the men concerned appears to have been discharged from the Army. The wages paid to the women taken on are in excess of those prescribed in Circular L2, which regulates the wages of women on munitions work of a class customarily done by men, and the aggregate of the wages paid to the women is greater than that paid to the men for whom they have been substituted.