§ 27. Mr. ANDERSONasked the President of the Local Government Board whether he has received a communication from the Marylebone and District Trades and Labour Council in regard to the employment of wounded soldiers at less than a standard rate of wages by the electricity department of the Marylebone Borough Council; whether it is the view of his Department when discharged soldiers are employed by a local public body that their State pension should be taken into account in deciding what wages shall be paid them; and, in view of the objections to such a practice, what steps he intends to take?
§ The PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY to the LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD (Mr. Hayes Fisher)I understand that a few disabled soldiers are employed by the electricity department of the St. Marylebone Borough Council on work which, notwithstanding their disability, they are able to perform, and that they are paid a fair and reasonable wage and given the benefit of the council's scheme as to sick pay and superannuation. As my hon. Friend is probably aware, a Trade Advisory Committee, consisting of an equal number of representatives of associations of employers and workpeople, has been formed jointly by the Minister of Labour and the War Pensions Statutory Committee to give advice upon questions relating to the training and employment of disabled sailors and soldiers as electricity sub-station attendants; and I am informed that this matter has been considered by the Committee, who have reported that the rates of wages which are being paid by the council to the men in question have been determined without regard to their pension and are the same as the rates that were paid in pre-war times, with an additional war bonus of 2s. In reply to the latter part of the question, I may point out that the matter is not one in which the Local Government Board would be empowered to take any action.