HL Deb 08 February 1949 vol 160 cc560-1
THE EARL OF MUNSTER

My Lords, I beg to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.

[The Question was as follows:

To ask His Majesty's Government, whether paragraph 12 (2) (b) of The Wages Regulation (Licensed Nonresidential Establishment) (Managers and Club Stewards) Order, 1948 (1948 No. 2101) is intended to give retrospective effect to regulations which became operative as from October 31, 1948.]

VISCOUNT HALL

My Lords, the paragraph of the Regulation referred to has no retrospective effect. It merely provides machinery for calculating current remuneration on the basis of staff hours worked in a period prior to the date of operation of the Order.

THE EARL OF MUNSTER

I am much obliged to the First Lord, but I should have thought that the very fact of taking into consideration a period previous to October 31, 1948, in connection with the current remuneration of a club steward must give the Order a retrospective force. Is it not clear that new rates of pay for a club steward are being introduced which are dependent entirely upon what occurred before the introduction of the Order?

VISCOUNT HALL

The noble Earl will appreciate that some basis must be determined on which to fix the remuneration. I know of no better basis than that for the period preceding the coming into operation of the Order. It is not retrospective, except in the sense of taking that period into consideration for fixing the remuneration for the following period.