HC Deb 27 June 1956 vol 555 cc471-2
12. Mr. Hale

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies the minimum wage payable to an adult worker employed on a farm in Kenya; the maximum number of permitted hours a week; the estimated normal wage actually being paid for a normal week; and whether Government officers have instructions to refrain from witnessing employment agreements when they appear unfair to the worker.

Mr. Lennox-Boyd

There is no statutory minimum wage in rural areas. Average total monthly emoluments on farms and ranches are estimated to be 60s.—of which 31s. represents the cash wage—and 80s.—of which 37s. represents the cash wage—respectively. An employee may also make additional income through the use without charge of his employer's land for cultivation and stock grazing. Hours of work are not controlled, but are estimated to average 39 hours in a six day week. Magistrates and attesting officers may refuse to attest a resident labourer's contract which does not provide for fair remuneration.

Mr. Hale

Can the right hon. Gentleman say whether any instructions of any kind are given as to what is fair remuneration? Upon the figures which he has just given, 7s. 9d. a week is apparently the cash payment for a man. Time after time we have produced in this House employment agreements which provide that other members of the family must also work, which means that the average figure is very much smaller. What instructions are given to these attesting officers, and what steps are taken to provide decent wages?

Mr. Lennox-Boyd

Magistrates and attesting officers can refuse to attest any wage which does not provide fair remuneration in money, having regard to local wage rates. In regard to the general question of rural wages, a Rural Wages Committee was appointned by the Government last March, following the Carpenter Report upon African wages, and as soon as I receive information about its recommendations, I will let the House know.

Mr. Bevan

Is not it a fact that even here, in Great Britain, when a class of workers find themselves unable to defend their standards of living against economic or other circumstances, the law steps in to protect them? If this is the case in Great Britain, is it not much more necessary in Kenya, where all kinds of other disabilities exist? Is not this evidence of the background to all the appalling things which have been happening in Kenya?

Mr. Lennox-Boyd

I hope that the right hon. Gentleman will not dismiss so easily the whole basis of the Mau Mau conspiracy. I have no reason to think that these wages are very disproportionate, but I am awaiting, as are the Government of Kenya, the recommendations of the Rural Wages Committee. As soon as I get them we can have a profitable talk about the question.

Mr. Bevan

I have not said that this is the background to the whole of Mau Mau, but I am asking the right hon. Gentleman whether it is not evidence of the fact that there is appalling neglect of ordinary human understanding here, that these conditions should persist year after year when in Great Britain, a highly-organised country, this House passed laws to protect agricultural workers, for example, long years ago.

Mr. Lennox-Boyd

It is a great mistake to try to relate figures of one country with those of another. I would ask the right hon. Gentleman to await the publication of the Committee's Report.