§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Employment what is his latest estimate of the number of homeworkers; and how many of them are covered by wages councils.
§ Mr. John GrantI have nothing to add to the reply I gave my hon. Friend on 9th January.—[Vol 941, c.644].
§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will estimate the number of homeworkers who are (a) women, (b) disabled and (c) immigrants.
§ Mr. John GrantI have nothing to add to the reply I gave my hon. Friend on 9th January.—[Vol. 941, c.645.]
§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will recommend to the Health and Safety Executive that all employers of homeworkers who refuse to meet the provisions of the Factories Act should be prosecuted forthwith.
§ Mr. John GrantI am informed by the chairman of the Health and Safety Commission that prosecution is not the only sanction which can be used against employers who fail to comply with the Factories Act 1961. The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 gives inspectors power to issue prohibition notices, which are effective until the appropriate safeguards have been provided, or improvement notices, which can list the safe-514W guards required and require compliance within a certain specified time. Failure to comply with a notice is an offence for which employers are liable to be prosecuted.
The chairman adds that outright refusal to comply is extremely rare, and in such cases, if sufficient evidence of non-compliance were available, prosecution would certainly follow. Normally, when an inspector points out details of noncompliance, most employers proceed to rectify the matters and it is therefore not usually necessary to invoke extreme legal sanctions.
§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Employment (1) if he will institute a departmental inquiry into piece rates, and wage rates of homeworkers;
(2) if he will mount a major campaign of investigations by wages inspectors on the wages paid to homeworkers;
(3) if he will move to appoint a Select Committee to examine the problems of homeworkers;
(4) if he will have further discussions with the TUC and CBI about the wages and conditions of homeworkers.
§ Mr. John GrantI hope to make a statement about homeworking next week.
§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will introduce legislation to seek to bring all homeworkers under the protection of the Redundancy Payments Act 1973, the Trade Union and Labour Relations Act 1974 and the Health and Safety at Work, etc., Act 1974.
§ Mr. John GrantI have nothing further to add at present to the reply that I gave my hon. Friend on 25th January.—[Vol. 942, c.626.]
§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will prepare a special scheme for the retraining of homeworkers to enable them to acquire new skills.
§ Mr. John GrantI am informed by the Manpower Services Commission that no special provision for the retraining of homeworkers appears to be necessary since the existing arrangements for help- 515W ing people to acquire new skills are as open to homeworkers as to other workers.
§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Employment how many home-workers are dealing with dangerous substances.
§ Mr. John GrantThis information cannot be obtained under existing legislation. I am informed by the chairman of the Health and Safety Commission that the intention of new legislative proposals currently being prepared by the Commission is to enable health and safety inspectors to identify those homeworkers at risk from dangerous substances, equipment or processes so that they may check on the adequacy of safety precautions. The Commission also intends to propose that some very dangerous substances should be banned entirely for use by homeworkers.
INDICES OF AVERAGE GROSS HOURLY EARNINGS OF MANUAL WORKERS IN MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES (EXCEPT WHERE OTHERWISE STATED) 1948=100 United Kingdom* United States of America France† West Germany‡ Japan§§ 1948 100 100 100 100 100 1949 103 104 112 114 160 1950 107 109 123 122 195 1951 117 118 158 138|| 250 1952 126 124 183 149|| 289 1953 133 131 188 151|| 327 1954 143 134 199 155|| 348 1955 154 139 214 165|| 357 1956 165 144 231 181|| 392 1957 176 152 249 199 411 1958 182 156 278 212 410 1959 189 162 295 225 444 1960 208 167 316 250 483 1961 220 172 340 276 529 1962 229 177 369 308 582 1963 240 182 401 330 645 1964 258 187 430 356 707 1965 284 193 454 392 771 1966 300 201 481 421 865 1967 313 210 510 438 973 1968 335 223 573 456 1,125 1969 363 236 637 503 1,319 1970 418 249 705 568 1,526 1971 467 264 784 634 1,730 1972 533 282 880 690 1,999 1973 603 302 1,067 765 2,483 1974 724 327 1,269 851 3,128 1975 907 356 1,486 923 3,496 1976 1,011 384 1,681 986 3,920 1977 1,094 417 1,903 1,061 4,678 Source: International Labour Office "Year Book of Labour Statistics". * October survey, adult males only. † October survey, hourly wage rates, adults only. ‡Including family allowances paid directly by employers. § Monthly earnings of manual and non-manual workers including bonuses and directly paid family allowances. || Including building and quarrying.