TRANSFERRED UNDERTAKINGS (COMPENSATION TO EMPLOYEES) REGULATIONS, 1959 (Hansard, 23 July 1959)

THE EARL OF GOSFORD

My Lords, I beg to move that these Regulations be agreed to. The purpose of these draft Regulations made under Section 101 of the Transport Act, 1947, is to require the British Transport Commission to pay compensation to officers and servants employed in connection with the Caledonian and Crinan Canals or Holyhead Harbour Board, which were transferred to the Commission under that Act on April 1, 1948. The grounds on which compensation can be claimed are loss of employment, reduction of emoluments or other money loss, loss of pension rights, or worsening of position with respect to the conditions of service as a whole. The loss or reduction or worsening must have 487 occurred in consequence of the transfer of these undertakings to the Commission.

Approval to the making of these Regulations has not up to now been sought because the undertakings concerned operated as before the transfer with no displacement of staff. Their new conditions were as good as before the transfer, and until the middle of 1957 no claim had been recorded. Notice was received in 1957 that a claim might be put forward in respect of two employees at Holyhead Harbour, and it was decided that the necessary Regulations should be made in case that claim should mature. Without the Regulations, their claims could not be adjudicated upon.

The draft of the Regulations was agreed with the various bodies concerned, including the Transport Salaried Staffs' Association, the Transport and General Workers' Union, and the National Union of Railwaymen.

Before the draft could be laid for approval, certain legal problems had to be resolved, and these were finally cleared by reference to the Law Officers of the Crown. So that a claimant may not be prejudiced by the fact that these Regulations were not made nearer to the time of the transfer of these undertakings, provision is made for an award of compensation to be retrospective—provided, of course, a claim is made in the prescribed time. I beg to move.