HC Deb 27 March 1979 vol 965 cc246-7
9. Mr. Neubert

asked the Secretary of State for Employment when he expects to meet the chairman of the Standing Commission on Pay Comparability.

Mr. Booth

I met Professor Clegg yesterday.

Mr. Neubert

Is the Secretary of State able to report progress in the work of the Commission, or is it another Government stalling device? Why is it not yet possible to indicate the groups which qualify by their preconditions for reference?

Mr. Booth

Progress has already been reported to the House by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister. My right hon. Friend made a statement on 7 March on the general role of the Commission. Local authority manual workers, National Health Service ancillaries, ambulance men and university manual workers have been offered comparability studies. The local authority manual workers have settled their outstanding claim, as have the hospital ancillaries, and they may now proceed to their comparability study.

Mr. Cryer

Will my right hon. Friend guide the comparability group to study the hypocrisy of Opposition Members who call for low wages when they are lining their pockets with parliamentary adviserships and directorships as fast as their greedy fingers can get hold of them? Will he encourage the group to carry out a comparability study of the work of some Opposition Members, with their directorships, and the useful work that is carried out by others such as hospital porters, ancillary workers and those who work in local government, and expose the hypocrisy of Opposition Members' utterances day after day and week after week?

Mr. Booth

I am certain that the workers whose claims have been referred to the Commission are doing useful and valuable work. I hope that they will benefit from a fair comparison with others doing similar work and making a similar effort in other sections of our economy. I do not want to interrupt the good work of the Commission with a review of the practices to which my hon. Friend has referred because I do not think that they are of such value to the community.

Mr. Prior

How does the right hon. Gentleman justify that answer to the hon. Member for Keighley (Mr. Cryer) with the attitude that the Government are now adopting towards the Civil Service, which has had a long-established tradition of pay research? Pay research is now being denied to the Civil Service at a time when the Commission on Pay Comparability is about to give comparability to other groups. Is he not aware of the strongly held view in the Civil Service that the Government are breaching the undertakings that they gave? Civil Servants ask how anyone can have confidence in a Government comparability exercise when the Pay Research Unit has been treated in such a cavalier fashion.

Mr. Booth

I am keenly aware of the importance that Civil Service negotiators attach to the PRU system. That is why I believe that the Government are right to give an undertaking to the Civil Service that the outcome of the present PRU exercise will be fully implemented and that the matter which is now for negotiation is the staging by which that is obtained.

Mr. Prior

Surely the Civil Service was under the impression that it had been given an undertaking that would be implemented from 1 April. Why is it that the Government have not made plain in advance their views on when implementation would take place?

Mr. Booth

I do not understand how such an understanding could have arisen. It has been made clear from the outset to the review bodies, the Commission, the PRU and the Civil Service that the staging of the findings was a matter of Government responsibility and was to be negotiated with the Government.