§ Mr. KELLYasked the Minister of Labour if his Department possesses any record of the trades and industries where the normal hours of the working week are more than 48; and, if so, will he state the names of such trades and industries, with the number of people employed?
§ Mr. BETTERTONpursuant to his reply [OFFICIAL EFFORT, 26th March, 1928; col. 806, Vol. 215] supplied the following statement:
For the following classes of workers there are agreements fixing hours in excess of 48 per week:
- Pig Iron Manufacture.—Process workers.
- Steel Smelting.—Gas producermen and certain other classes who are required to work at week-ends.
- Heavy Chemical Manufacture.—Shift workers.
1012 - Lead Smelting.—Process workers.
- Spelter Manufacture.—Process workers.
- Electricity Supply.—Shift workers in certain districts.
- Gas Manufacture.—Shift workers in certain districts.
- Ironstone Mining.—Surface workers in Cleveland.
- Shale Mining.—Surface workers in Scotland.
- Lace Manufacture.—Twist hands (Levers section) in Derby and Nottingham.
- Lace Embroidery Workers.—Nottingham.
- Tugboatmen.—River Tees.
Particulars of the numbers covered are not available.
In coal-mining the hours of underground workers are 7½ per shift in some districts and 8 in others, exclusive of one winding time (estimated to average about half an hour per shift). The hours of surface workers exceed 48 in certain districts by agreement.
In agriculture the hours in respect of which the minimum rates fixed by the Agricultural Wages Board are payable exceed 48 in some districts in summer and, in other districts, all the year, while men in charge of animals frequently work over 48 hours.
The following table shows for certain industries the proportion of workpeople as ascertained by a general inquiry made by the Ministry of Labour relating to 1924, whose normal hours exceed 48 per week:
Industry Group. Total number of work-people covered by the returns received. Percentage of Work-people whose normal hours were over 48. Pottery, Brick, Glass, Chemical, etc. 277,828 11.8 Metal 1,362,199 5.0 Textile 1,031,821 2.9 Clothing 487,318 3.3 Food, Drink and Tobacco. 398,911 14.0 Woodworking 179,516 13.7 Paper, Printing, etc 238,004 3.6 Building and Allied Industries, 289,783 11.6 Other industries 306,164 15.3 Public Utility Services 466,366 12.6 Government Industrial Establishments. 101,810 0.8 All the above 5,139,720 7.3