HC Deb 11 January 1995 vol 252 cc138-9
6. Mr. Amess

To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will make a statement on the recent visit of the Minister of State to the tractor plant at Basildon.

Mr. Eggar

I visited the New Holland Ford facility, the largest agricultural equipment plant in the UK, last October. In addition to a tour of the plant, I had a very useful meeting with senior management from New Holland Ford and its parent company, Fiat.

Mr. Amess

Following my right hon. Friend's visit to Basildon, will he join me in congratulating the work force and management of the Fiat tractor plant on their success in increasing sales of their products throughout the United Kingdom? Following his discussions, does he agree that the pay and employment opportunities of the work force would have been adversely affected if our right hon. Friend the Prime Minister had not achieved the opt-out provisions in the Maastricht treaty?

Mr. Eggar

I join my hon. Friend in congratulating the plant's management and work force. It has been a major success story. Production is up by some 30 per cent. on three years ago, despite the fact that the overall market has fallen by some 26 per cent. in the same period. [Interruption.] The Opposition seem to find it funny that my hon. Friend jokes at their expense because of their stance on the social chapter. Let me spell it out to them—

Madam Speaker

Order. I remind the Minister that we are not in debate. The question needs answering.

Mr. Eggar

May I emphasise to my hon. Friend, Madam Speaker, the message that we both received from the work force? It was that it is working on average 55 to 65 hours a week, which involves about 20 hours' overtime. The work force does that voluntarily and I am sure that my hon. Friend will not miss the opportunity to make it clear to these people that, if the Labour party were in power, they could not work that amount of overtime but would be limited to 48 hours a week.

Mr. Purchase

Does the Minister accept that it is illegal for horses to work more than eight hours a day? Although he claims that it is a great thing for people to work 60 hours a week, does he not accept that high skills and good investment in our plant represent a far better way to proceed in the last part of the 20th century and into the 21st century than keeping people at work for 60 hours a week?

Mr. Eggar

I see: so the new model Labour party will dictate to individual workers exactly how many hours they should work.