§ 12. Mr. Frank Allaunasked the Minister of Pensions and National Insurance if he will ensure that workers on 839 short time, working only four days a week, should, when a one-day holiday occurs, be paid one day's unemployment benefit in addition to holiday pay.
§ Mr. Boyd-CarpenterI see no grounds for modifying the well-established statutory requirement that there must be at least two days of unemployment in six consecutive weekdays before benefit can be paid.
§ Mr. AllaunSurely the Minister never intended that thousands of men with only three days work in such a holiday week should suffer the hardship of one day without pay, holiday pay or unemployment relief. Does not this injustice arise not from the industrial agreement but through a recent Commissioner's ruling which was wanted neither by the employers nor by the workers? Could not the Minister find a way of avoiding this hardship, possibly by amending the regulations?
§ Mr. Boyd-CarpenterI cannot see how, in principle, one could justify treating a regular holiday as a day of unemployment, quite apart from the question of holiday pay referred to in the Question, but if the hon. Member will write to me concerning the decision of the Commissioner to which he referred and which he feels has given rise to some trouble, I shall be glad to look into the matter.