§ 30. Mr. BYRNEasked the President of the Board of Trade if he is aware of the confusion and dissension caused by the way Departments in Ireland have construed the reading of the recent award of 5s. which was to be paid from 1st January last; and if he will now make it clear by issuing a list of trades and classes of employés, etc., to whom the award was meant to apply?
§ Mr. BALDWINI am not aware of any confusion or dissension such as is referred to in the first part of the hon. Member's question and in any case of doubt it is open to Heads of Departments to address an inquiry to the Treasury.
§ 36. Mr. BYRNEasked the President of the Board of Trade if he is aware that, owing to the failure of the Board of Trade to issue the award under the arbitration proceedings held before Sir Richard Lodge at the Shelbourne Hotel, Dublin, on 26th March, the Amalgamated Society of Engineers employed on the various railways having termini in Dublin have 761 resolved, on an overwhelming majority on a ballot vote, to hand in a week's notice to terminate their agreements on next Monday if in the meantime the inaction of which they complain is not remedied; if he is aware that the decision was taken at a mass meeting of the men held in the Trades Hall, Capel Street, Dublin, over which Mr. Bernard Cunningham, chairman of the district, presided, and at which Mr. J. Free-land, of Belfast, the Irish organising delegate, was present, on Wednesday the 6th instant; if he is aware that the arbitration was in reference to a claim made by the engineers for an increase of wages, and the executive council approved of the vote by ballot being taken; that the resolution reached creates an acute position on the Irish railways, for it affects between 350 and 400 men; that the engineers employed by the Great Northern Railway Company at Dundalk have "downed tools" since Saturday over the same grievance, and by the vote taken last Wednesday the Limerick and Waterford districts as well as Dublin, are involved; and if he will state the proposals of his Department to avert the trouble?
§ The PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY to the MINISTRY Of LABOUR (Mr. Bridgeman)I am aware of the difficulty that has arisen affecting members of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers employed in railway shops in Ireland referred to in the hon. Member's question, and I am also acquainted with the reasons of the arbiter's withholding his award. The Minister of Labour is in communication with the officials of the society on the matter.
§ Mr. BYRNEWill not the hon. Gentleman in future make applicable to Ireland whatever awards apply to English workshops?
§ Mr. BRIDGEMANI do not think that quite arises out of the question.