§ 14. Mr. RAMSAY MACDONALDasked the Minister of Munitions whether he has been informed that the shipyard employés in Dumbarton received from their employers a promise on the 20th December last that an increase of 12 per cent. would be paid on the 22nd if the Ministry of Munitions agreed that the firm was in communication with the Ministry on the subject; that the Ministry sent, under date of the 11th December, a letter which arrived on the 21st and which was too late to permit of an amicable settlement of the claim; whether he is aware that, after delays and continued unsettlement owing to the indefinite replies made by the Ministry of Munitions, a large number of men quitted work; and whether he has yet been able to settle this dispute?
§ Dr. MACNAMARAI will answer this question if I may. It is a fact that the employés received a promise from their employers on 20th December that the per cent. bonus to plain time workers would be paid on the 22nd if the Ministry of Munitions agreed, and that firms concerned were in communication with the Ministry on the subject.
The Order is dated 11th December, and a very large number of copies had to be issued. Finding from the printers that the prints could not be returned to us by the 18th, we set to work ourselves on the 17th, duplicating copies of the Order and a covering letter which were posted by us on the 18th. These were not delivered by the post office to some of the Dumbarton firms till the 21st. On the 20th, some of the employers on the Clyde informed their men that unless the Order was received that day, it would be impossible to pay the bonus to all men entitled to it on the 22nd, and a notice to this effect appeared in the local Press. The copies arrived too late to enable the employers to make up the pay sheets so as to pay on the 22nd, and the bonus was paid the following week before the New Year holidays.
It is possible that this incident contributed in some degree to the decision of the men to "down tools," but my hon. Friend is, of course, aware that other questions were involved. The whole question of the strike has since been in the hands of the Ministry of Labour. I understand that 650 most of the men affected in this particular case undertook to return to work this morning.
§ Dr. MACNAMARAI should like to see the terms of it, but I have no doubt in my own mind that that is the ease.