Mr. TYSON WILSONasked the Minister of Labour whether the 47-hour week as agreed to by the employers and employés in the engineering trades applies to firms that are not members of the Engineering Trades Employers' Federation; and, if so, whether he can take any steps in cases where a firm refuses to put the 47-hour week in operation?
§ Mr. WARDLEThe reply to this question is in the negative. Before the agreement can be made binding under the Wages (Temporary Regulation) Act, 1918, on employers who were parties to it, it must first be translated into an agreement relating to prescribed rates of wages, and such an agreement must be approved under Section 1 (1) of the Act; and before firms who were not parties to it are affected by it an order must be made under Section 2 (3) of the Act making the new conditions binding on all workmen to whom the prescribed rate is applicable, and the employers of those workmen.
Mr. WILSONasked the Secretary to the Admiralty if he is aware that the Rose Street Foundry and Engineering Company, Limited, contractors to the Admiralty, has refused to adopt the 47-hour week as agreed to by the engineering trades; and, if so, what steps he proposes to take in the matter?
§ Dr. MACNAMARAthe 47-hour week was adopted as the result of an agreement between the Employers' Federation and the trade unions. I understand that the Rose Street Foundry and Engineering Company, Limited, of Inverness, is 75W not in the Employers' Federation, and is therefore not bound by that agreement. The case must therefore be judged under the Fair-Wages Clauses, and I will cause investigations to be made and communicate with my hon. Friend.