§ Mr. A. Y. ALEXANDER (by Private Notice)asked the Minister of Health whether he is aware that a skilled workman, Albert Haydock, of View Road, Sheffield, was on Thursday, 8th March, charged before the Sheffield Court with refusing to perform a prescribed task set for him by the Ecclesall Board of Guardians, and for neglecting to maintain his wife and family when there was opportunity to work; that the magistrates inflicted a fine of £5 or, in default, a month's imprisonment; that Haydock subsequently surrendered to undergo the sentence of imprisonment; that the work Haydock refused was the subject of negotiation between the trade union and public bodies concerned; that. Haydock refused to work, on a question of principle, as to the conditions which at present apply to the work; that Hay-dock's Poor Law relief was stopped by the guardians, and on representations made by them to the Labour Exchange his unemployment benefit was withdrawn; that under a decision of the Labour Exchange authorities this man's unemployment benefit was afterwards restored, from which it would appear that his refusal to accept the task work 879 was entirely justified; whether he is aware that a large number of other cases are involved in this decision, and further, whether sufficient task work is provided by Poor Law authorities to absorb all unemployed skilled and unskilled workmen in receipt of Poor Law relief, and, if not, under what Regulations or authority invidious selections are made from the ranks of skilled workmen for the purpose of task work at lower rates than trade union wages for unskilled work; and what steps he proposes to take to prevent the abrogation of principles for which trade unions have fought for decades, and to remove the injustice in the particular case in question?
Mr. CHAMBERLAINThe hon. Member appears to be under some misapprehension. It is within the discretion of the guardians to require a task of work to be performed as a condition of the receipt of out-door relief, and the relief paid by them is calculated not as wages for the task performed but in accordance with the needs of the applicant and his dependants. The selection of persons to be required to perform such a task is also within the discretion of the guardians, but in the present case, I am informed, that a short-period task of three days is being required from all able-bodied male persons receiving relief in the area. I do not at present see any grounds for my intervention.
§ Mr. ALEXANDERIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that the three days is a weekly test; that it is set every week?
§ Mr. ALEXANDERI have information to that effect. Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that this particular man surrendered as a test case, and that hundreds of other cases are hanging upon it, and whether he considers that a trade unionist should give away his principles, fought for for decades—[HON. MEMBERS: "Speech! "]