§ 7. Mr. Thomas Coxasked the Secretary of State for Employment what is the number of productivity agreements signed during the last 12 months.
§ The Minister of State, Department of Employment (Mr. R. Chichester-Clark)In view of the large number of settlements my Department has not hitherto required the notification of pay agreements, whether productivity agreements or not.
§ Mr. CoxSurely the hon. Gentleman realises that that is a totally unsatisfactory answer in view of the importance that we are told his Government attach to productivity agreements. Is the hon. Gentleman aware that, following the statement by the Prime Minister yesterday, there will now be a great reluctance on the part of workers to enter into any productivity agreements because of the freeze? Is not this yet another example of the complete lack of understanding that this Government have of the whole question of industrial relations?
§ Mr. Chichester-ClarkThe Government are interested in increasing productivity, of course. But agreements were not always real agreements as registered under the policies of the last Government. 801 Very often they were simply pay agreements accompanied by expressions of good intention and were mainly concerned with the revision of wages structures. As to the future, the introduction of new productivity agreements will be suspended during the standstill, but the implementation of agreements already in existence will continue. The treatment of agreements in the period following the standstill will be dealt with in the further legislation, and no doubt we shall have a very good chance to debate that in the course of the next few days.