§ 5. Mr. G. Thomasasked the Minister of Labour whether he is aware of the imminent closure of the Cardiff Foundry and Engineering Company (1947) due to a fall in demand for iron castings; and whether, in view of the consequent unemployment of Cardiff workers, he will make a statement on alternative employment prospects.
§ Mr. Iain MacleodYes, Sir Of 80 workers dismissed in the past few weeks, only 22 are still registered as unemployed, 6 of whom are under submission to vacancies. Efforts to place those unemployed will continue and I am encouraged by the progress already made in resolving this redundancy.
§ Mr. ThomasIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that the B.S.A., which is the main holder of this company, has behaved very badly indeed to the apprentices, some of whom have completed two or three years and were just thrown out without their time counting? Would he ask this firm to give further consideration to the question of finding work for these apprentices?
§ Mr. MacleodI will look at the point about apprentices, which is a new one to me. The firm has certainly provided redundancy payments for many of these people. On the general question, perhaps the hon. Member will remember that he had this Question down for me last week, when I was going to give him an extremely discouraging answer. The position has improved so much in the last few days that we have made a great deal of progress in regard to these people.