37. Lieutenant-Colonel MALONEasked the Minister of Labour whether it is proposed to set up a trade board in the wholesale and retail distributive trades; whether this would include over 2,000,000 workers, employed by different industries, whose particular industrial needs would be indistinguishable; whether the conference called to discuss the matter included all interests concerned; whether the recommendation to form a trade board was only carried by a bare majority; and whether he will explain the reason for the imposition of a trade board in this instance, in view of the recommendations of the Whitley Report?
§ Sir R. HORNEIt is proposed to apply the Trade Boards Acts to the wholesale and retail distributive trade. Two conferences have been held, to which all the organisations known to the Department in the trade were invited to send representatives. A resolution recommending that one trade board for the whole trade should be established was passed by 20 votes to 10 by a joint committee of employers' and workers' representatives elected by the delegates at the first general conference, but at the later conference it was unanimously agreed that the question of the number and scope of the trade boards required should be the subject of consideration by the nominees of the various organisations appointed to represent them on the trade board or boards. No definite decision has yet been reached as to whether there shall be one or more Orders covering the whole trade, both wholesale and retail, and I am at present awaiting the observations of these organisations on a proposed definition of the trade which has been circulated. As my hon. and gallant Friend is aware, the Reports of the Whitley Committee recommended the establishment of trade boards in those industries which were not suffi- 1089 ciently organised for the establishment of joint industrial councils. I am satisfied that the degree of organisation of the employers and workers in the distributive trades is not sufficient to permit the formaiton of a joint industrial council, but is appropriate to the system of trade boards.
§ 41. Mr. HAYDAYasked the Minister of Labour whether, in connection with the proposal to establish a trade board for the distributive trades, he has received any representations from Scotland to the effect that the different conditions prevailing in Scotland render it essential that there should be a separate trade board for that country; and whether he will give this matter his sympathetic consideration?
§ Sir R. HORNEI have received representations from certain sections of the distributive trade in Scotland requesting the establishment of a separate board for Scotland and I shall certainly give this my most careful consideration.