1. Mr. Vyvyan Adamsasked the Minister of Labour what are the intentions of His Majesty's Government with regard to the ratification of the International Labour Office's Convention for the maintenance of migrants' pension rights?
§ The Minister of Labour (Mr. Ernest Brown)The views of His Majesty's Government with regard to the Convention referred to by the hon. Member are set out in a White Paper (Cmd. 5141) issued in March, 1936, of which I am sending the hon. Member a copy.
2. Mr. Adamsasked the Minister of Labour whether he is aware that the Weekly Rest in Industries Convention, without any general limitation of the total working week, has now been ratified by 31 States; and whether His Majesty's Government intend to make their ratification of this Convention dependent upon a decision about the duration of the working week?
§ Mr. BrownThe answer to the first part of the question is, "Yes, Sir." As regards the latter part, successive Governments have not seen their way to ratify the Convention owing to certain provisions, for example, with regard to compensatory periods of rest if any work is done on Sunday, which, if put into force, would seriously interfere with the provisions of voluntary collective agreements. This is quite independent of the duration of the normal working week.
Mr. AdamsWould the Minister kindly repeat the phrase after "certain provisions," as I did not catch what he said?
§ Mr. BrownI said that successive Governments have not seen their way to ratify owing to certain provisions, for example, with regard to compensatory periods of rest if any work is done on Sunday, which, if put into force, would seriously interfere with the provisions of voluntary collective agreements. As a matter of fact, a good many such agreements are in advance of the suggested alterations.
§ Mr. BrownI tried to make it clear that there could be no effective ratification of it in the circumstances.