§ Sir F. Bennettasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is the current basic weekly gross pay of a manual male worker, and in regard to how many working hours weekly without any overtime element, in the gas, coal mining and electricity supply industries, the railways, and in the docks and in the ancillary hospital services.
§ Mr. Chichester-Clark. I have been asked to reply. The annual New Earnings Survey is the only statistical inquiry which gives estimates of average weekly earnings excluding the effect of overtime pay and overtime hours for manual workers in the gas, coalmining, electricity supply and railway industries and those affected by the dock-workers and National Health Service ancillary staff agreements. The latest estimates thus relate to a pay-week in April 1972. The following figures relate to full-time manual males aged 21 and over of all grades and occupations whose pay for the survey pay week was not affected by absence. The figures include all items of pay-for example, bonuses, shift premia, allowances-other than overtime pay but exclude payments-in-kind. They are subject to sampling error. Since the survey was conducted there have been major pay settlements in the electricity supply industry and on the railways.
The figures are as follows: