HC Deb 13 April 1972 vol 834 cc217-9W
Mr. Marks

asked the Secretary of State for Employment what action his Department has taken on the application of employees of Associated Electrical Industries/General Electric Company, Openshaw, and other engineering firms in the Manchester area for unemployment benefit consequent upon the firm's decision to cease payment of certain wages.

Mr. Dudley Smith

Claims to unemployment benefit made by employees of Associated Electrical Industries/General Electric Company, Openshaw, and other engineering firms in the Manchester area have been referred to the independent statutory authorities in the normal way for a decision on entitlement and in particular a decision as to whether the trade dispute disqualification in the National Insurance Act, Section 22(1), applies to them.

Mr. Marks

asked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will make a statement on the employment situation in Manchester engineering works as a result of bans by employees on piecework and overtime.

Mr. Chichester-Clark

I understand that some 13,000 engineering workers in the Manchester area are involved in stoppages of work as a result of bans on piecework and overtime and other industrial action short of a strike.

Mr. Marks

asked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will investigate his Department's instruction to men and women employed at Associated Electrical Industries-General Electric Company, Openshaw, and who are shortly due for retirement, that they must make themselves available for work; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Dudley Smith

My Department has no knowledge of impending premature retirements at the firm concerned and no instruction has been issued to the employees. Regulations made under the National Insurance Act provide that a day shall not be treated as a day of unemployment for unemployment benefit purposes if it is a day in respect of which a person fails to prove that he is unemployed and capable of work and available for employment in an employed contributor's employment.

Mr. Charles R. Morris

asked the Secretary of State for Employment what action his Department intends to take to help resolve the industrial dispute affecting the Associated Electrical Industries-General Electric Company factory at Openshaw, Manchester.

Mr. Chichester-Clark

Intervention by my Department in this dispute would not in my right hon. Friend's view be helpful at the present time.