§ 16. Mr. J. H. Osbornasked the Minister of Labour what information he has about the number and percentage of voluntary absenteeism in industry, not due to sickness or industrial injury, in each of the past four months; and whether he is satisfied with the detail of the information available to his Department.
§ Mr. GunterI do not have the information for which the hon. Member asks.
§ in this area and are not obliged to leave to find employment elsewhere?
§ Mr. ThorntonWe will certainly give close consideration to those points.
§ The following is the information:
§ It would be extremely difficult to get reliable information on this subject, as it would often be impracticable to distinguish between voluntary absenteeism and other forms of absence.
§ Mr. OsbornWould the Minister not agree that absenteeism of this type is one of the worst difficulties confronting many industries at present? Would it not now be worth while making inquiries to discover the extent to which absenteeism is voluntary, particularly, for example, since one industry is today declaring the figure to be 7 per cent.?
§ Mr. GunterI agree that absenteeism is deplorable. It is, however, equally true that we do not have the information and that many employers do not inform us of the different forms of absenteeism.
§ Mr. H. HyndHas my right hon. Friend noticed the number of Questions asked so far today and the amount of absenteeism on the Opposition benches?