§ [Nos.1 and 2.]
§
Clause 7, page 4, line 39, leave out subsection (2) and insert—
(2) If the amount payable to a seaman under subsection (1) of this section exceeds £50 or such other amount as may be prescribed by regulations made under section 9 of this Act and it is not practicable to pay the whole of it at the time of discharge, not less than £50 or. as the case may be, the amount so prescribed shall be paid to him at that time and the balance within 7 days of that time.
§ The Commons disagreed to this Amendment, but proposed the following Amendment to the words so restored to the Bill:
§ Page 5, line 2, leave out "his"
§ LORD BROWNMy Lords, I beg to move that this House doth not insist on their Amendment No. 1 to which the Commons have disagreed, and doth agree with the Commons in their Amendment No. 2 to the words so restored to the Bill. I propose, with your Lordships' permission, to speak to Nos. 1 to 7, relating to Clauses 7, 8 and 9, which are Amendments and Commons Reasons. Your Lordships will recall our discussions on Report stage on these clauses, particularly on the first Amendment, and will understand from what I said on that occasion why the Government are unable to accept these Amendments. They are conceived in an admirable intention, to enable crews' wages to be calculated ashore in a modern way and to save the master the burden of doing so at a time when he is occupied with bringing the ship to port. However, this will be done largely at the expense of the seaman, who will not always know on discharge what balance of wages is due to him, and will receive only £50 or some prescribed amount at that time; and he may have to wait up to seven days for the balance and for a statement of account. We do not think that that is good enough, and on these grounds the Government are unable to accept the Amendments.
1206 I beg to move that this House doth not insist on Amendment No. 1 to which the Commons have disagreed, and doth agree with the Commons in their Amendment No. 2 to the words so restored to the Bill.
§ Moved, That this House doth not insist on the said Amendment, and doth agree with the Commons in their Amendment No. 2 to the words so restored to the Bill.—(Lord Brown.)
§ LORD SANDFORDMy Lords, I think the House will agree that it will be quite convenient to deal with Amendments Nos. 1 to 7 en bloc, because they all relate to the same vexed question of the wages of seamen, the accounts of wages to be presented to seamen and the regulations relating to both. We have had long discussions on this issue at all stages of the Bill in this House, as they have had in another place. We have sought all along to try to lead the Government from the nineteenth century, which is where these archaic arrangements come from, and to lead them to adopt a more seamanlike, a more sensible and a more up-to-date solution of what is admittedly a difficult problem. We have said over and over again that what we are proposing is not something that will apply in the general case but something that will apply only in the exceptional circumstances (and "exceptional" is a word I have used over and over again) when it is, in the master's opinion, more important that his navigation should be precise than his accounts. In those circumstances, we think that the way things should be is quite clear. However, despite these prolonged and varied attempts of every kind—because we have offered the Government one solution after another of this problem—we have not succeeded, and now, at this stage, I think there is nothing further to be done.
§ On Question, Motion agreed to.