72. Captain CAZALETasked the Minister of Agriculture how many and which counties have increased the wages of agricultural workers during the past year, and the approximate number of workers affected?
§ Mr. ELLIOTDuring the 12 months ended 31st October last, 17 of the 47 Agricultural Wages Committees made increases in the minimum rates of wages for male workers and a further six Committees gave notice of proposals to that effect: six other Committees reduced the 1038 number of hours in respect of which the weekly minimum wage is payable and in addition two Committees both increased the wage and reduced the hours. I am circulating in the OFFICIAL REPORT a statement giving the areas concerned and the number of workers in those areas.
§ Following is the statement:
§ The areas where the Committees increased the minimum wage or gave notice to that effect were Berkshire, Cheshire, Cornwall, Derbyshire, Devonshire, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Hampshire and Isle of Wight, Lincolnshire (Holland), Oxfordshire, Shropshire, Somerset, Staffordshire, Suffolk, Surrey, Wiltshire, Yorkshire (East Riding), Yorkshire (West Riding), Anglesey and Caernarvon, Carmarthen, Glamorgan, Pembrokeshire and Cardigan, Radnor and Brecon; those in which the hours were reduced were Bedfordshire and Huntingdonshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex, Lincolnshire (Kesteven and Lindsey), Northamptonshire and Soke of Peterborough, Worcestershire; and those in which the minimum wages were increased and the hours also reduced were Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely and Leicestershire and Rutland.
§ I am unable to give the number of workers affected by the changes but the aggregate number of male workers in the areas concerned as returned on the Agricultural Schedules for the 4th June last was 399,375.