§ Mr. Meacherasked the Secretary of State for Trade, in view of the fact that International Distillers and Vintners, Lindustries, Tarmac, Thomas French and Sons and Thomas Witter are paying wages to some or all of their African workers in South Africa below the poverty datum line, whether he proposes to take any action if they continue to fall below this minimum standard as recommended by the EEC code of conduct.
§ Mr. ParkinsonI shall continue to encourage British companies to implement the code, as I did when I spoke in the House on 25 May last year.—[Vol. 967, c. 1389.]
§ Mr. Meacherasked the Secretary of State for Trade if he will give a detailed analysis of what is shown by the latest round of reports by British companies operating in South Africa under the EEC code of conduct regarding (a) the circumstances of immigrant labour in the employment of these companies, (b) the development of trade union rights and (c) the desegregation of their work force.
§ Mr. ParkinsonI refer the hon. Member to the written answer given to my hon. Friend the Member for Harrow, Central (Mr. Grant) on 16 April.—[Vol. 982, c. 653–4.].
§ Mr. Meacherasked the Secretary of State for Trade if he is satisfied that the reports on African employment conditions submitted to his Department under the EEC code of conduct by British companies operating in South Africa fully reveal in each case the number of Africans in their employment paid below the poverty datum line and the minimum effective line ; and if he will review the form of reporting in order to ensure that this information is readily comprehensible by anyone reading the reports.
§ Mr. ParkinsonNot all the reports fully reveal this information. The reporting format set out by the previous Government in Cmnd. 7233 is, in my view, the best arrangement for the purpose the hon. Gentleman has in mind given the complexities of the data, but as the code itself is voluntary I cannot compel companies to provide information in this form
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§ Mr. Meacherasked the Secretary of Slate for Trade to how many British companies operating in South Africa he has written who either have not provided information under the European Economic Community code of conduct regarding African working conditions or who have provided information but are paying their African workers below the poverty datum line or minimum effective line ; if he will publish a specimen letter of this kind ; and when the letters were despatched.
§ Mr. Parkinson[pursuant to his reply, 6 June 1980, c. 835]: My Department wrote on 20 September 1979 to 159 companies and on 25 and 26 March 1980 to 25 companies which had not by those dates published reports under the code. I am having a specimen text of these letters placed in the Library of the House.