HC Deb 11 April 1922 vol 153 cc382-3

(1) Part II of the First Schedule to the principal Act shall have effect as though there were inserted therein after paragraph (b) the following new paragraph:— (bb) Employment as a female professional nurse for the sick or as a female probationer undergoing training for employment as such a nurse.

(2) This Section shall come into operation on the first day of July, nineteen hundred and twenty-two.

Lords Amendment:

At the end of Sub-section (1) insert as new Sub-sections: (2) Whereas the result of the formation of any company or of the amalgamation of any companies, or of any other like process, any person, company or body of persons is succeeded by a company or body as employer in any business or undertaking, the Minister may, in determining for the purposes of the provisions of paragraph (d) of Part II of the First Schedule to the principal Act what is the normal practice of the employer or whether a person has completed three years' service in the employment, treat the normal practice of the old employer as being the normal practice of the new employer and treat any service under the old employer as being service under the new employer. (3) Any certificate with respect to employment in the service of a railway company or joint committee of two or more such companies given by the Minister under paragraph (d) of Part II of the First Schedule to the principal Act, as amended by Act No. 1 of 1921, at any time before the first day of July, nineteen hundred and twenty-two, shall, if the conditions on which it was given so long remain unchanged continue in force for a period of five years from the first day of July, nineteen hundred and twenty-two, notwithstanding anything therein to the contrary.

Dr. MACNAMARA

I beg to move, "That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment."

These two Sub-sections are for the purpose of carrying out an undertaking which I gave to my right hon. Friend the Member for the City of London (Sir F. Banbury) and my right hon. Friend the Member for Derby (Mr. Thomas). The second of the two Sub-sections deals with the period of five years which was referred to in debate, and will, I trust, meet the case to which attention was then drawn. The earlier Sub-section has reference to the anticipation that there may be a difficulty in a case in which certain companies may be amalgamated, and that it may be held that service in a separate company does not carry with it the same rights, and that service conditions should be precisely the same as if the service were in an amalgamated company. We want to avoid that difficulty. I believe Subsection (2) will carry that out.

Lords Amendment:

In Sub-section (2) leave out "(2)," and insert: (4) Sub-section (1) of.

Agreed to.