Lieut.-Colonel GUINNESSasked the Minister of Labour whether estate clerks and farmers' bailiffs are insurable persons under the Unemployment Insurance Act of 1920, in view of the fact that their employment depends on agriculture, horticulture, and forestry, which are excepted from the operation of the Act?
§ Dr. MACNAMARAI have decided in a specific case submitted for my determination under Section 10 of the Unemployment Insurance Act, 1920, that a person employed as an estate clerk and typist keeping the books of the home farm, forestry department and other accounts in connection with an agricultural estate, is not employed in agriculture within the meaning of the Act. By virtue of this decision an estate clerk is required to be insured unless in any particular case the rate of remuneration exceeds in value £250 a year, in which case the employment is excepted under paragraph (h) of Part II of the First Schedule. The insurability of farmers' bailiffs depends on the actual work which the bailiff performs. Authoritative decisions with regard to particular cases may be given by me on application made 1952W under Section 10 of the Act, but in view of the responsibility placed on me by this Section, I could not undertake to give any decision without full particulars of the individual case. I should add that my decisions are subject to appeal to the High Court.