HC Deb 27 May 1968 vol 765 cc1221-3
40. Mr. John Lee

ask the Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity if she will institute an inquiring into the feasibility of 24-hour shift systems.

The Under-Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity (Mr. Harold Walker)

At the request of the National Joint Advisory Council, industrial rela-lations officers of my Department under took a series of studies of shift working which were published at the end of 1967. Several independent studies have also been carried out, and others are still in train. My right hon. Friend is not proposing to initiate a further general inquiry.

Mr. Lee

I thank my hon. Friend for that full and helpful reply. Some of us regard 24-hour shift systems as most important in an area of high capital intensive industry. If my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State is not prepared to institute a full inquiry, may I ask that the utmost consideration be given to this matter?

Mr. Walker

We shall certainly encourage the further spread of shift working where it shows itself to be advantageous.

Mr. Lubbock

Is the hon. Gentleman aware that 24-hour shift working does not operate at all in the Palace of Westminster, where hon. Members have to work all three shifts?

Mr. Walker

That is not a matter for me.

Mr. Frank Allaun

Is my hon. Friend aware that if some of these efficiency experts had to do a bit of night shift and shift work themselves, as some of us have, they would not be so damned enthusiastic about it?

Mr. Walker

I agree with my hon. Friend, speaking as one who has had a lot of experience of working night shifts in a factory. Studies have been carried out by the Medical Research Council's Industrial Psychology Unit into the social aspects of nightshift work. We await the publication of the report of these studies with interest.

Mr. Gresham-Cooke

Does the hon. Gentleman recognise that in coal-mining and in the steel industry three-shift working has been normal practice for a very long time—for 50 or 100 years—that there is a great deal of plant in British industry which is working only one-third of the day and not working at all on Saturdays and Sundays, and that we are losing out as compared with other countries which are now adopting two-shift and three-shift systems?

Mr. Walker

The economic advantages of shift work are not so clear-cut as the hon. Gentleman suggests. They tend to be offset by such factors as night-shift premiums. It might interest the hon. Gentleman to know that a detailed 10-year survey into shift-working was conducted by Robin Harris and financed by my Ministry for the period 1954 to 1964. The conclusion was that there was no evidence to prove that shift-working was in all cases advantageous or profitable.

Mr. Heffer

Is my hon. Friend aware that, where it does operate, night-shift working creates a great deal of unhappi-ness, unpleasantness and difficulty for the people involved, and that, while it may be true that there is a greater use of plant and machinery, people's happiness and health come before that? Further does my hon. Friend know of any lawyers who work 24 hours?

Mr. Walker

The legal profession is not a responsibility of my Department. I accept that any economic advantages which can be gained wherever shift work proves to be advantageous must be weighed against the social consequences.