§ Mr. T. KENNEDYasked the. Minister of Labour (1) if he is aware that 10 months' employment annually in the last five years is being applied as a test for the payment of unemployment benefit to women engaged in the fishing industry; if he is aware that in the present state of the industry this test operates unfairly on the women concerned; and if he can take any steps to remedy this hardship;
(2) if he is aware that a number of women engaged in the fishing industry, classed as packers and gutters, are being refused unemployment benefit on the ground that they are seasonal workers; that the women in question at Buckie, Lossiemouth, Fraserburgh, Peterhead, and other North-East and Moray Firth centres are not, as a matter of fact, casual workers but are solely dependent on this skilled work in the fishing industry for a livelihood; that their periods of unemployment are due to depression in the industry through loss of markets; and if he will now see that their claims to unemployment benefit are reconsidered and met?
§ Sir A. STEEL-MAITLANDA special investigation was made last year in a number of centres where this industry is carried on, and an opportunity was given to those concerned to make their representations. As a result, I am satisfied that the treatment accorded to the cases in question is justified by the facts. I shall, however, be happy to consider any evidence in support of the hon. Member's contentions, if he will furnish it. The Committee on Unemployment Insurance, under the Chairmanship of Lord Blanesburgh, is directing its attention to the position of these workers.
§ Mr. T. KENNEDYasked the Minister of Labour the number of single women and widows engaged in the herring-fishing industry who have claimed and received a certificate of exemption relieving them from the payment of unemployment contributions; if he is aware that the grounds upon which such certificate of exemption can be granted are that the claimant must have a pension or income not dependent on her personal exertions of over £26 a year, or that she is dependent on her husband or some other 3028W relative, or that she has some other occupation, such as a shop or business of her own; and whether, in view of the impossibility of such conditions being fulfilled by young women and widows working in this industry, he will review these grounds of exemption?
§ Sir A. STEEL-MAITLANDSince the beginning of 1926, 154 applications for certificates of exemption have been received from poisons employed in the Scottish herring-fishing industry; 74 have been granted and the remainder are awaiting the result of investigation. I have no separate figures for single women and widows. The conditions of exemption, as stated in the second part of the question, are statutory, and I have no power to alter them.