HC Deb 16 July 1973 vol 860 cc21-2
35. Mr. Biffen

asked the Minister for the Civil Service if he will make a statement on the Stationery Office printing dispute, indicating the increase claimed in rates and earnings and the corresponding employer's offer.

Mr. Kenneth Baker

The claim by the Parliamentary Press linotype operators involved an adjustment between the flat sum and piecework rate which make up the earnings of the operators, and would have involved an increase of approximately £9 on the average earnings of £80 per week. Work was resumed on the basis of an increase of £4 per week for the average operator, which is within the limits laid down by Government incomes policy.

Mr. Biffen

During the dispute, was my hon. Friend able to determine what were the earnings of printers involved in broadly corresponding work in the Metropolis, and how this settlement compares with the level of earnings of linotype printers' operators not working for the Government?

Mr. Baker

That goes rather wider than the Question on the Order Paper. My hon. Friend is asking me about earnings in Fleet Street, possibly, or of other operators in the printing industry. They tend to be substantially higher, but I would not know exactly by what amount.

Mr. Sheldon

Great inconvenience was suffered as a result of this dispute, elements of which still continue. Has the hon. Gentleman examined the possibility of dividing certain parts of the work into two parts—that which concerns the printing of Order Papers and of HANSARD for the House and Standing Committees, and the other part, consisting of less urgent matters, which could be delayed a little longer?

Mr. Baker

I think that if there were to be a division it would have to be on that basis, between the time-critical Order Paper, for example—without which the House cannot meet at 2.30 p.m.—and the more substantial printing work, such as HANSARD and Bills, whose printing involves the employment of several hundred people. As my right hon. Friend the Leader of the House said about three weeks ago, I am looking into the possible division of the work.