HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT (FACILITIES) (Hansard, 10 March 1975)

§ The Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons (Mr. Edward Short)
As my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Employment has just said, the present situation is that industrial civil servants manning the PSA works depôts which look after the Houses of Parliament and buildings in Whitehall have gone on strike today. The strike is unofficial and the total number of staff involved is about 420.
Strikers are picketing the Houses of Parliament and other Government buildings in Whitehall. Certain other categories of staff, in particular those responsible for lift maintenance and the inter-departmental dispatch services, are not willing to cross the picket lines.
No major breakdowns in services have been reported and it is hoped to continue to run all essential services so that the work of both Houses will be able to continue.
Steps are being taken to provide whatever papers are essential to enable the House to function, though, as in the past, there may be some inconvenience to hon. Members.
House of Commons catering staff are working but are unwilling to light gas appliances which are normally lit by the unofficial strikers. I regret that this means that only a cold meal service is available. Coffee is available in the Members' Guest Room and will be available after lunch and dinner in the Harcourt Grill Room. Tea and coffee are available in the Members' Smoke Room.

§ Sir G. Howe
Is it not a fact that this is the first time that workers employed in the Houses of Parliament have themselves been the subject of pickets of this kind? Does not the progressive influx of industrial action of this kind into the Palace of Westminster itself betoken evil times for the future? If, as the Secretary of State for Employment has made clear, the claims now being discussed are themselves in breach of the social contract, will the Lord President of the Council encourage his colleagues to do something to secure a settlement of this dispute that actually upholds the social contract? Will he not also himself be prepared to strike a blow 39 by going to strike a light in the Tea Room to set these fires going?

§ Mr. Short
The reply to the right hon. and learned Gentleman's first question is that I understand, although I am not sure, that there was a previous occasion when the House was picketed.

§ Mr. Skinner
Is my right hon. Friend aware that some of us have attended the House of Commons today only at the insistence of those on the picket line in order to put their case in the House and that we shall continue to do so for as long as this unofficial strike lasts? The strike may become official when the union executive has considered the matter.
My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Employment mentioned other increases. Is my right hon. Friend aware that London weighting and threshold agreements are not part of any wage increases as such? Is he aware that this situation is a relic of the statutory incomes policy of the last Tory Government and something that we should clean up as soon as possible?
Is he also aware that although it might have been wrong for his right hon. Friend to interfere in the railways dispute, for that interference would have been Government interference in industrial free collective bargaining, as the custodian of this place my right hon. Friend should have some part not as a mediator, but in a capacity in which he can solve the problem?

§ Mr. Short
I am sure that, as my right hon. Friend has said, it will be the wish of hon. Members in all parts of the House that the dispute should be settled as quickly as possible. We hope that the strikers will go back to work so that the normal process of negotiation, which has not broken down, may continue.

§ Mr. Thorpe
Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that some of us have come to the House to represent the voters who return us from our constituencies? Would he give an undertaking that if action is taken that would impede the discharge of parliamentary functions by an hon. Member, he will immediately make a statement to that effect, because although, if we are denied hot food and lifts, we shall still be able to discharge those func- 40 tions, and probably be rather healthier in the process, there is a sessional order and we are getting near to seeing a breach of it?

§ Mr. Short
Any question of privilege would be a matter for you to decide in the first place, Mr. Speaker. You would have to say whether there was a prima facie breach of privilege and it would then be for the Committee of of Privileges, and I should not venture to comment on that. However, I understand that for there to be contempt of Parliament and therefore a breach of privilege two elements would have to be satisfied. One is that there would have to be physical obstruction real physical obstruction—and the other is that the dispute would have to be angled solely and exclusively towards impeding the work of Parliament and not just be part of a general and broader dispute. Those are the two conditions. However, it is of course initially a matter for you, Mr. Speaker, and ultimately for the Committee of Privileges.

§ Mr. Arthur Lewis
Is my right hon. Friend aware that this dispute could be settled within five minutes? All it needs is for him to say that the Government will treat these people as generously and as quickly as they treated the top paid civil servants and that they will give these people an increase of as many thousands of pounds as they give each year to the judges and the top paid civil servants. If he says that, they will be back within five minutes.

§ Mr. Short
There is machinery for dealing with the salaries of top civil servants and judges and there is machinery for dealing with the salaries of the civil servants who are now on unofficial strike. The negotiations are going on. They have not broken down. I hope that my hon. Friend will add his voice to ours in urging these people to go back to work.

§ Mr. Ronald Bell
If they do not go back to work, what does the Lord President propose to do about it? When are the Government going to stand up to these juvenile cowboy and Indian games of crossing picket lines and all the other nonsense? Why not face up to it and give some kind of reward and recognition to those who stand up to group action and break strikes.

§ Mr. Short
My job is to try to ensure that the House is able to carry out its functions and to carry on normally, and this I shall do to the best of my ability.

§ Mr. Frank Allaun
Is my right hon. Friend aware that these men have very good reasons for striking? They were promised an interim increase by January but they have not received it, although non-industrial civil servants have received an increase of £3 a week, plus three extra days' holiday a year, plus extra shift allowances. If non-industrial workers have received the award, why is it that industrial workers have not been given it?
Is my right hon. Friend aware that, because their wages are so low, these men are having to work on Saturdays to support their families? Is my right hon. Friend further aware that there are 6,000 men involved in London who will be called out shortly if this promise is not kept, and it has not been? It is all very well for Conservative Members to talk about inconvenience, but they have no idea of the inconvenience suffered by these men every day of their lives.

§ Mr. Short
My hon. Friend is wrong. No promise was made of an interim settlement. I repeat that the negotiations have not broken down. They are going on, and I hope that all hon. Members will wish the dispute to be brought to an end as quickly as possible.

§ Sir G. Howe :
Is it not clear that if, as the Lord President says, the Houses of Parliament are being picketed for only the second time in their history, the negotiations have in any practical meaningful sense broken down and the members concerned are demonstrating their disquiet at the failure of the negotiations to produce results?
Can the right hon. Gentleman say clearly, first, whether the claim being made is in breach of the social contract? Secondly, is the Government's position in breach of the social contract? Will the right hon. Gentleman accept his responsibility to clarify this rather cloudy document at least in this respect which affects us so directly? He must see that one side or the other is not welshing on this important document.

§ Mr. Short :
My right hon. Friend said clearly that an interim payment would be in breach of the 12-month rule, and that is the difficulty.