Short-time Working (Information) (Hansard, 19 April 1956)

§ 12. Mr. Chapman
asked the Minister of Labour whether his attention has been drawn to the representations made to his Department at a meeting of his Birmingham Employment Committee on 12th April that the figures he has supplied on the extent of recent short-time working in the area are inaccurate and collected in an unreliable manner; what revised figures he can now make available; and what action he is taking to secure a reliable method of collecting this information.

§ Mr. Iain Macleod
My attention has been drawn to the representations of the Committee. I do not agree that the figures I supplied were inaccurate, or that the method of collecting such information is unreliable.

§ Mr. Chapman
Is it the case that the Minister at one time said that there were 7,000 men on short-time, when the trade union officials insisted that there were 7,000 on short-time in one factory alone in Birmingham at that time? Is it a really good enough method of calculation merely to ring up the factories and get some figures in a rather haphazard manner?

§ Mr. Macleod
No—the local officers of the Ministry are much more closely in touch with the situation than that. As I am sure the hon. Member knows, it is much easier to obtain accurate figures in respect of an industry such as the motor car industry, which consists of a certain number of large firms. I am certain that my figures are accurate here, whereas I am by no means so confident, for example, in the case of the furniture industry. In the example referred to—the Austin company—the figure for short-time work was lust over 6,000 for only a few days at the beginning of February. For the rest of the time it was about 5,000.

§ Mr. V. Yates
Is the Minister not aware that trade unions in Birmingham are extremely dissatisfied about the figures, especially those relating to the so-called vacancies for skilled men? They are really not correct. In view of the criticisms that have been made of them, would the Minister not look into the matter to see whether there is any better method of deciding about these vacancies?

§ Mr. Macleod
The vacancy figures I merely collect and report to the House of Commons or to the public, as the case may be. As I said in the employment debate, if there is a method of improving the statistical service that I give and which concerns us all, I shall be delighted to have it. I am confident about my figures in regard to the motor car industry in a way that I do not pretend to be and cannot be for an industry which has a great number of small firms in it.

15. Mr. Lee
asked the Minister of Labour the basis upon which his Department compiles its figures of persons engaged upon short-time working at any given time.

§ Mr. Iain Macleod
The figures of short-time working which are published quarterly by my Department are based on returns obtained from all employers with more than ten workpeople in the manufacturing industries, other than ship building and ship repairing. The estimate of the number of workers on short-time which I gave in the debate on employment on 20th March was based, as I explained, on information obtained by my local offices as a result of their contacts with employers.

Mr. Lee
Is the Minister aware of the need for more information about how the Ministry collects these figures? Is he further aware that there is a tendency today towards short-time working instead of unemployment, for which we are all very grateful, and that this element within our figures now occupies a far greater position than it ever did before? Would the Minister try to ensure that where there is short time, no matter how short the period may be, and especially in the textile industry, where we have the same complaint, he will get a full register of the people who are affected?

§ Mr. Macleod
We ought to draw a distinction here. The quarterly returns to which I have referred in my Answer are, I am certain, accurate, and can be accepted as such by everyone. It is also true that when one takes a snap check, as I tried to do for the convenience of the House, at dates outside those for the statutory returns, the figures are obviously liable to a number of errors. It would be putting too great a burden on firms to ask them to make returns in addition to those which they are already asked to make quarterly.

§ Mr. S. Silverman
Do the figures for short time workers include workers who would not be registered in the Minister's return if they were wholly unemployed? I am thinking of the married women who are not separately insured.

§ Mr. Macleod
The figures include all those who work fewer than their normal hours in the week in which the particular check is taken. I shall have to look into the question whether married women, many of whom opt out, would not be included in these returns.