§ Mr. CHARLES DUNCANasked the First Lord of the Admiralty whether he has received notice from the engineers employed at His Majesty's dockyards at Chatham and Devonport of their refusal to continue to work overtime; whether such refusal has now been put into operation; whether this decision is likely to continue until such time as their request for an advance in wages has been conceded; and whether he can indicate what steps he proposes to take to end the difficulty?
§ Dr. MACNAMARAWe have received a communication from the district secretaries of the Devonport and Chatham Committees of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers to the effect that the members of the society employed in the Devonport and Chatham dockyards had decided not to work overtime until some satisfactory reply be given to their demand for an increase in wages. As a consequence, during the past two weeks, a number of men in these two yards have refused to work overtime. As I explained to my hon. Friend in a reply to an unstarred question put by him on Thursday last, the work of annually reviewing wages and conditions is approaching completion. I have yet to hear the workmen's petitions at Portland, Pembroke Dock, and Haulbowline. These will be heard within the next few weeks, and the Board's decisions announced as soon as possible.