MUNITIONS OF WAR BILL. (Hansard, 17 August 1917)

LORD ELPHINSTONE
My Lords, for this Bill, to which I am asking your Lordships to give a Second Reading, I think the claim can fairly be made that I it is a non-controversial measure. It is the result of long and intricate negotiations which have taken place between the Minister of Munitions and various bodies concerned, and, so far as it goes, it comes before your Lordships this afternoon stamped with the approval of both employers and employed. Originally it had been hoped to postpone the Bill until the autumn, when it could have been brought forward as part of a larger, carefully thought out, and agreed settlement of the various labour questions affecting the Ministry of Munitions. It is, however, obvious, with the very short time at its disposal before Parliament adjourned, that it was impossible for the Minister of Munitions to settle definitely, to the satisfaction of everybody concerned, the whole of the questions that have arisen, many of which 678 are complicated and require considerable time for negotiation. It was therefore decided to concentrate on the more important issues—those which require immediate settlement; and it is obvious, in the present condition and state of affairs, that it would be highly unwise to leave unremedied until Parliament meets again, a couple of months hence, certain hardships and grievances that have been found to impede output and militate against the maximum effort of this country. This Bill, therefore, is an instalment, designed for that purpose.
I have no doubt that those of your Lordships who have studied the Reports of the Commissioners on Industrial Unrest will have noticed the unanimity of their Reports as regards certain causes of this unrest. Among these causes are the leaving certificates, the grave anomalies that exist at the present time in the rate of pay as between skilled and semi-skilled labour, and also, in a possibly lesser degree, the delay which now ensues in the dealing with and settlement of any matters in dispute. These are the principal subjects which are dealt with in this Bill.
I have no doubt that the present system of leaving certificates is perfectly well known, and I will not say much on that point. It was responsible for much of the discontent in the country among the working classes, and I would like to point out one of the main reasons—apart from the loss of liberty; these men have been kept for two years separated from their wives and families—why the system of leaving certificates has been responsible for much of the unrest. The most highly skilled men in a factory working on time rates expect to get a higher rate of pay than the semi-skilled labour in that factory, but as a matter of fact they may well receive less than the semi-skilled man, in the same shop, working on the piece rate system, although the highly skilled man has probably trained the semi-skilled man for his job. However discontented he may be, owing to the existence of the leaving certificate it is impossible for him to leave. The Minister of Munitions has therefore for this and for various other reasons decided to repeal that section of the original Munitions of War Act, 1915—Section 7—which instituted the system of leaving certificates. It is quite true that this Bill does not do this directly. What 679 it does is to provide the machinery for doing this. And the reason is this. If you abolish leaving certificates here and now in this Bill the result may be, and most probably would be, owing to the anomalies in the rates of pay, that there would be a migration of labour, especially of the skilled labour, to the less highly skilled but higher paid work, and this would be disastrous to the output of munitions, because it is, necessarily, the skilled men who are difficult to get and who are irreplaceable. The Minister of Munitions asks for power to give directions as to the rate of wages to be paid to such classes, and, in addition, further safeguards are to be put in to avoid the danger of this migration of labour. There is a clause which requires a week's notice on either side, another prevents a man moving from war work to private work; and these provisions in the present circumstances can only be regarded as eminently reasonable. When the Minister of Munitions is satisfied that the wages difficulty has been satisfactorily met, he has given an undertaking that he will immediately abolish the leaving certificate. This will be in about four or six weeks time; possibly, he hopes, sooner. That is the main object of the Bill.
There are other matters dealt with. One, universally agreed to, is the power to extend awards made between factory employers and trade unions to employers who are not parties to the agreement. This is to ensure unity of action in any particular trade, or in any particular district as the case may be. This clause is considered by all those who are affected by it to be of great importance, as well as the clause which prevents the cutting of piece rates, which has always been a fruitful source of trouble, and in which all employers in this country have not always been entirely blameless. The principle now laid down is that there should be no change except in accordance with the procedure adopted between employers and trade unions or by the direction of the Ministry of Munitions. There are other clauses designed to effect a speeding up of the settlement of disputes. These are the main provisions of this Bill, and I feel sure your Lordships will agree that by the removal of what I may call the legitimate grievances and hardships which have, in a large measure, contributed to industrial unrest and consequent loss of output, we shall gain to a far greater degree the con- 680 fidence and loyal support of the great masses of the working classes of this country, and shall in the end reap a much richer harvest of output, which is as necessary now as it ever has been in the past for the successful prosecution of the war.

§ THE EARL OF SELBORNE
I did not hear the Government say anything about their proposal to take this Bill through all its stages to-day.

§ EARL CURZON OF KEDLESTON
My Lords, the noble Earl is quite right in asking the question, and perhaps I should have taken an opportunity of making a statement on the point. I did not anticipate asking your Lordships to do any more than take the Second Reading of the Bill to-day, thinking that we should sit on Monday and take the remaining stages, after suspending Standing Order XXXIX, on that day. I am still willing to take that course if your Lordships wish me to do so. But I am informed that there is no other business on Monday, and I am doubtful whether your Lordships would think it convenient to meet again on that day for the exclusive purpose of passing this Bill. If you think that would be the more proper course I am willing to adopt it, but unless noble Lords object I would propose to take the Bill through its remaining stages this afternoon.

§ THE EARL OF SELBORNE
My Lords, the course which the Leader of the House has proposed could only be justified, as he would be the first to admit, on the ground that this is an emergency measure, and I 681 think it has been made plain to us, by the noble Lord who has so lucidly explained its main provisions, that we really are dealing with a measure which justly can he termed an emergency measure; because in the first instance it is aimed at that industrial unrest the causes of which have been explored recently by a series of Commissions, and which has been a source of unfeigned anxiety to many people in this country. I think it is generally admitted that a great deal of it has been owing to the conditions, rather hurriedly conceived and framed, under which many thousands of our fellow-countrymen have been working during the past three years; that the disquiet which has been engendered by those conditions is only such as may be expected in the circumstances, and the present Minister of Munitions has framed this Bill with the object of removing some of the most important of these causes of disquietude and discontent. I understand also that the Bill is approved both by employers and employed, as well as considered necessary by the Government; and in these circumstances I think your Lordships will be well advised to admit the urgency of the measure and agree to the course proposed.

LORD ELPHINSTONE
I have to move three small drafting Amendments in Clauses 1 and 8.