HC Deb 22 July 1918 vol 108 cc1522-3

(3) The Minister shall as soon as may be after he has made, an Order under this Section send notification thereof to the trade board concerned, and the trade board shall after receiving the notification give notice of the rate fixed, varied, or cancelled, as the case may be, and of the date when such rate shall become effective and of the confirming Order of the Minister.

(4) Any such minimum rate as aforesaid, or the cancellation or variation of any such rate, shall become effective as from the date specified in that behalf in the Order by which it is confirmed.

The date to be so specified shall be a date subsequent to the date of the Order, and where as respects any employer the date so specified does not correspond with the beginning of the weekly or other period for which wages are paid by that employer, the rate shall become effective as from the beginning of the next such period following the date specified in the Order.

Mr. G. ROBERTS

I beg to move, in Sub-section (3), after the word "shall" ["the trade board shall"], to insert the words "as soon as may be."

This is merely a drafting Amendment, which is necessitated by the acceptance of an Amendment in Committee. In the-present form of the Bill there is nothing to compel the trade board to give early notice of the making of the Order by the Minister, and the Amendment proposes to insert the words "as soon as may be" in order to secure that there shall be no unreasonable delay.

Amendment agreed to.

Mr. ROBERTS

I beg to move, in Subsection (3), to leave out the words "rates fixed, varied or cancelled, as the case may be, and of the date when such rate shall become effective and of the confirming Order of the Minister," and to insert instead thereof the words "making of the Order and the contents thereof."

This Amendment also is largely of a drafting character. The object of the Amendment is merely to make clear on the face of the Bill that there should be notice not merely of the Order but of the proposals contained therein, and this can be secured by the words now proposed.

Amendment agreed to.

Mr. ROBERTS

I beg to move, in Subsection (4), after the word "employer" ["any employer"], to insert the words "who pays wages at intervals not exceeding seven days."

This Amendment is of a drafting character. It is a slight amendment to that which was made in Sub-section (4) of Clause 4 in Committee. Under the original Amendment as it now stands it would have been possible for employers in certain cases to escape their obligations to pay the minimum rate for a longer period than seven days. If, for instance, they paid wages monthly—I do not think that there are many cases, but they should be safeguarded—the workers might be deprived of the benefit of the minimum rate for nearly a month. In the vast majority of cases, of course, the wages are paid weekly. The object of the Amendment was merely to provide that an employer should not be compelled to calculate the wages of two parts of the same week at different rates.

Amendment agreed to.

Further Amendment made: Leave out the words "weekly or other."—[Mr. G. Roberts.]