Industrial Disputes (Hansard, 4 July 1972)

§ 7. Mr. Thomas Cox
asked the Secretary of State for Employment how many days have been lost through industrial disputes since 1st January, 1972.

§ Mr. Maurice Macmillan
A total of 14,401,000 working days was lost through industrial stoppages in the period 1st January, 1972, to 31st May, 1972.

§ Mr. Cox
Since such an appalling figure will be added to the staggering total of 34 million days lost through industrial disputes in the last two years, does the right hon. Gentleman agree that there is still no improvement in his Government's claim to be able to improve industrial relations? Can he give an assurance that he has made clear to his right hon. Friend the Prime Minister the importance of using today's meeting with the TUC not to dictate or to use bullying tactics but genuinely to try to find an understanding so that there can be an improvement—or is this country, because of the pigheadedness of the Government, to see further major disputes such as those we have so far seen this year?

§ Mr. Macmillan
My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister yesterday made clear the Government's position. He also made it clear that understandings are necessarily a two-way affair. This is a very high figure of which three-quarters, or 10.8 million days, is due to the national coal mining stoppage. It is also true to say that in the last year there has been a marked reduction in the number of occasions when a breakdown in industrial relations has resulted in industrial action.

§ Mr. Jessel
Can my right hon. Friend say roughly how many of the disputes have been stimulated by the Labour Party?

§ Mr. Macmillan
Not without notice. But even the most superficial observation would indicate that the attitude of the Labour Party in opposition is, if possible, noticeably less helpful than when it was in power.

§ 12. Mr. John D. Grant
asked the Secretary of State for Employment how many of the 384 disputes in which his Department's conciliation officers were called in in the first five months of this year concerned wages issues; and what were the comparative figures for 1971, 1970 and 1969, respectively.

§ Mr. Chichester-Clark
Thirty-two per cent. of all requests for conciliation in the first five months of 1972 concerned wages issues. The comparable figures are 29 per cent. for 1971 and 39 per cent. for 1970. I regret that similar figures are not available for 1969.

§ Mr. Grant
Is it not the case that many of the issues which have gone to conciliation in the last year or so have arisen from redundancies, which we expect at a time of chronic unemployment, and that on wages issues there is complete loss of faith in the Government because of their interference with the conciliation services? Is it not time that the Department of Employment stopped issuing misleading figures which purport to show that conciliation is now more popular?

§ Mr. Chichester-Clark
What the hon. Gentleman says is not borne out by the facts, because there is an increase in the figures I have just given regarding wages issues. It is clear that there is continuing confidence in the conciliation services. This is shown by the fact that 64 per cent. of conciliation cases undertaken in 1971 were at the request of unions and a further 11 per cent. were at the joint request of unions and employers.