§ LORD ORR-EWINGMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the first Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have warned the Central Electricity Board that the next strike in the nationalised industries is likely to take place in electricity supply during what could be the coldest period of the coming winter and what action is being taken to prevent the nation being again held to ransom.
THE LORD PRIVY SEAL (EARL JELLICOE)My Lords, I do not necessarily accept the premise on which my noble friend's Question is based. Nevertheless I can assure him that as part of its normal management responsibilities the industry has, in consultation with the Government, formulated plans to meet foreseeable contingencies for whatever reason they may arise. These plans are kept under regular review and are revised as necessary as circumstances change. I am anxious not to say anything that could be regarded as prejudicing the negotiations between the Electricity Council and the unions which, as your Lordships know, are due to begin to-morrow.
§ LORD ORR-EWINGMy Lords, while thanking my noble friend for that reply I should like to point out that this Question was first put down some two months ago and I do not know that things were quite as delicate at that stage as they are to-day. But is it not desirable that the public should have as much information as possible on issues of earnings and increases in this industry, so that they may form a judgment of what is in the national interest? Is it not true to say that the 1668 electricity supply workers in the last two years have received an increase of nearly 40 per cent. in their earnings, and does not this now bring them, even before any further award, marginally ahead of the equivalent average earnings in private industry? Could my noble friend perhaps impress on the Department of Employment and Productivity that it might be in the public interest, so that we can, as a public, form a judgment, if more frequent indices of average earnings were published than is now done, because one sometimes has to wait almost a year before receiving the figures of average earnings and being able to judge what the last wage award produced in increased earnings?
EARL JELLICOEMy Lords, I fully appreciate the question of timing to which my noble friend referred at the beginning of his supplementary question. I can confirm what he said about average earnings. I think the figure is 37 per cent., but comparisons in this area are difficult to make and many factors are involved other than crude weekly average earnings. I will certainly bear in mind what he has said about prompt statistics. The delay is not so very great. The Department of Employment's Gazette, which will be appearing next month, will give the figures for these and other comparable industries up to April of this year, and there is bound to be some delay in compiling and assessing these figures.
§ LORD ROYLEMy Lords, would the noble Earl not agree that nothing could be more calculated to create disturbance and confrontation in the industrial field than questions such as the one which the noble Lord has asked him? May I further ask the noble Earl whether he would assist his noble friend to drag that Communist from under his bed?
EARL JELLICOEMy Lords, I am extremely anxious, as I have said, not to say anything which will prejudice the important and delicate negotiations which are starting to-morrow, and I think it would be a mistake for me to be drawn by questions on either side in that respect. Of course I am not very clear what my noble friend may or may not have under his bed.
§ LORD ORR-EWINGMy Lords, may I reply—
§ LORD ORR-EWINGMy Lords, is it not true that the electricity supply industry has certainly not got a Communist at the head of its trade union, and I should not wish to do anything which would make Frank Chapple's task more difficult. Is my noble friend aware of that?
EARL JELLICOEMy Lords, the noble Earl or the noble Lord, as the case may be, is well aware of that.
§ LORD BLYTONMy Lords, is not the Minister aware that the questions that have been asked by his noble friend in the past two months have all been likely to damage the relationship between the Government and the trade unions, and does he not think that this Question, in the present difficulty in which the Government find themselves in regard to inflation and in the light of the C.B.I. and the T.U.C. negotiations, is derogatory from the point of view of the Government?
EARL JELLICOEMy Lords, much though I like and admire the noble Lord, Lord Blyton, and I agree with him on many matters, I cannot say that I agree with him on what he has said about my noble friend.