§ 56. Mr. RHYS DAVIESasked the Minister of Labour whether he is aware that the insurance industry unemployment board has entered into an arrangement with employers in insurance offices, whereby the history of an applicant for employment through the board is secured and supplied privately to prospective employers; and under what authority this is done?
§ Lieut.-Colonel MUIRHEADThe special scheme of unemployment insurance for the insurance industry, which has been made and approved under the Unemployment Insurance Acts, provides that the affairs of the scheme shall be administered by a Board composed of equal numbers of representatives of employers and workers in the industry and that, inter alia, the Board shall have an organisation for finding employment for members of the industry who are unemployed. The hon. Member will appreciate that employers in the insurance industry before engaging staff require information from the Board regarding the applicant's previous periods of employment in the industry and the giving of this information is an essential part of the efficient working of the scheme.
§ Mr. DAVIESIs the Minister aware that the Unemployment Board referred to in the question is using information that would not be used in the ordinary employment exchange, and how comes it that this Board is entitled to find cut the history of an applicant for work when the same rule does not apply to the ordinary unemployed person outside the insurance industry?
§ Lieut.-Colonel MUIRHEADThe position of the insurance industry is a question for the special Board set up to deal with insurance employés, and we have no reason to believe that the Board is not acting strictly within its power and simply utilising information which must be utilised in order to fulfil part of its duty, namely, that of finding work for insurance employés.
§ Mr. DAVIESWill the Minister be good enough to answer the last part of my question. What is the specific authority that this Board possesses to do 1051 what cannot be done in regard to an ordinary unemployed person outside the insurance industry?
§ Lieut.-Colonel MUIRHEADThe Board has authority, among other things, to undertake work in connection with finding jobs for unemployed members of the industry and acting within that authority it is supplying information to employers who wish to engage employés, and to employés who wish to be engaged.