§ 60. Mr. RHYS DAVIESasked the Home Secretary whether he has yet set up an advisory committee to which he can refer important questions in connection with the operation of the two-shift system for women and young persons; if so, whether he will state the names of the committee; and whether any order has been issued under Section 1 of the Employment of Women and Young Persons Act, 1936, as regards the arrangements to be made for ascertaining the views of the workpeople by a secret ballot?
§ Sir Gerald Bellhouse, Chairman.
§ Mr. Thomas Ashurst (Secretary of the Cotton Spinners' and Manufacturers' Association).
§ Brigadier-General A. C. Baylay, D.S.O. (Chairman of the Birmingham and District Engineering Employers' Association).
§ Miss F. Hancock (Organiser, Transport and General Workers Union).
§ Mrs. Stuart Horner, M.B., B.S. (His Majesty's Medical Inspector of Factories).
§ Mr. W. Kean, J.P. (General Secretary of the National Union of Gold, Silver and Allied Trades).
§ Mr. H. M. Moulden (General Secretary of the Leicester and Leicestershire Amalgamated Hosiery Union).
426§ Mr. A. J. Palfreyman (Chairman of the National Federation of Hosiery Manufacturers' Associations).
§ Miss F. I. Taylor (His Majesty's Deputy Chief Inspector of Factories).
§ The committee was asked to give immediate consideration to the procedure to be adopted for consulting the workers and taking the secret ballots required by the Act, and a draft Order to give effect to their recommendations has now been issued. Copies of the draft Order can be obtained from His Majesty's Stationery Office, and I am sending one to the hon. Member.
§ Mr. BROOKEWill the Under-Secretary say why no representative of the woollen textile industry was invited?
§ Mr. LLOYDThe names were selected from a list submitted by the General Council of the Trades Union Congress.
Miss RATHBONEDoes the hon. Gentleman not consider that, in a committee affecting women almost entirely, the proportion of women on this proposed committee is quite inadequate?