HC Deb 29 January 1957 vol 563 cc831-3
19. Mr. Fenner Brockway

asked the Minister of Labour how many workers employed at the Hawker Aircraft Company's factory at Langley are estimated to become redundant in consequence of the cancellation of the Ministry of Supply order for 100 Hunter jet fighters; and what steps are being taken to ensure alternative employment.

23. Mr. Hunter

asked the Minister of Labour how many employees at Hawker's aircraft factory at Kingston-on-Thames are estimated to be about to become redundant in consequence of cancellation of Ministry of Supply orders; and what steps are being taken to ensure alternative employment.

31. Mr. Lee

asked the Minister of Labour the number of workers dismissed from or working part-time in the aircraft industry at the latest convenient date; and what effects on employment he estimates will follow the decision to cut production of the Hunter aircraft.

36. Mr. Skeffington

asked the Minister of Labour whether he is aware that employees at Hawker Aircraft Factory. Kingston-on-Thames, are to become redundant; and what steps are being taken to deal with this matter.

Mr. Iain Macleod

Some 1,200 workers in the aircraft industry were reported to be on short time last week. No large redundancies have been reported in recent months and the numbers unemployed on 10th December were 804 or 0.3 per cent. of the industry's labour force.

I am in touch with the Hawker Aircraft Company, but it cannot yet say how many workers may be discharged in consequence of the cut in Hunter aircraft production. My local officers will give discharged workers every possible help in finding other employment.

Mr. Brockway

Does not the right hon. Gentleman regard that as a somewhat complacent reply? Is he aware that locally it is stated that between 700 and 800 employees of the Hawker Aircraft Company will lose their work in October?

Is he aware that this is a magnificent factory which could make not only aeroplanes but almost anything? Does he contemplate, without trying to find some alternative employment, that it should just become a storehouse, with the consequent loss of technical experts?

Mr. Macleod

I am bound to say that it seems difficult to read the hon. Member's supplementary question into the Answer which I gave the House. I am in touch with the Hawker Aircraft Company. I believe that the general manager is to issue some form of a statement to the employees and to the Press today. As for the possibilities of future employment, this company has, in the main, four factories. Three of them are in or near the Greater London area and, as the hon. Member knows very well, there is no great employment problem in that area. The other factory is in Lancashire, and that is a much more difficult problem.

Mr. Hunter

Will the Minister consult the Minister of Supply with a view to finding alternative contracts for the Hawker Aircraft Company? I assure the Minister that there is great concern amongst employees of the company, who are threatened with redundancy to the number of many hundreds. Will he watch the position very carefully?

Mr. Macleod

I recognise that there is anxiety, and I shall be very glad to consult my right hon. Friend.

Air Commodore Harvey

Will not my right hon. Friend agree that in this case considerable notice has been given of the cuts but that the real danger is that further cuts may take place in the industry? Will he consult his right hon. Friend to see that adequate notice is given in order to enable the works to reorganise and turn to other types of manufacture, if necessary?

Mr. Macleod

I will do everything I can to help in any long-term planning or redeployment which may be necessary, and I am sure that in their turn the company, and indeed all other companies, will recognise that they can help me a great deal by giving the maximum amount of notice.

Mr. Lee

Is the Minister aware that this is the type of thing to which I was trying to get the Prime Minister to reply a day or two ago when he made his statement on defence—that wherever this kind of running down of armaments orders takes place, there must be a compensating increase in other industrial activity? While I appreciate that this is outside the purview of the right hon. Gentleman's Department, will he, from the Cabinet angle, please try to expand the industrial base in that manner?

Mr. Dudley Williams

Will my right hon. Friend once more repeat, in order that it may be understood by right hon. and hon. Members opposite, that there is no shortage of vacancies in this area and no difficulty whatever in absorbing these men into the activities of other industries? Is it not altogether a strange Question to be put down by the hon. Member for Eton and Slough (Mr. Brockway), who is well known for his pacifist activities?

Mr. Macleod

I think it is true that for workers in three out of the four factories there were, at any rate on the December figures, many more vacancies in the area than unemployed, but it is also true—which I must recognise—that the position has deteriorated to some extent in the last few weeks; and although I recognise the general truth of what my hon. Friend has said, it is a position which I must watch.