§ Mr. GRUNDYasked the Minister of Labour (1) if he is aware that, owing to the Easter holidays being decided by the Rotherham Employment Exchange as having broken the continuity of unemployment, several hundreds of men at the Maltby main colliery have been refused their unemployment pay; and if he will inquire into this case with a view to rectifying any mistake that may have been made;
(2) whether he will explain the nature of the change under the Unemployment Insurance Acts in the manner of dealing with customary holidays in cases where men are only partially employed, and the authority for this change?
§ Mr. BETTERTONIn the case of men suspended from work, days of customary holiday which cannot count either for payment of benefit or as waiting days cannot any longer, as they could before the passing of the Unemployment Insurance Act, 1927, be regarded as days of unemployment for the purpose of maintaining continuity of unemployment. The relevant provision is contained in the Fourth Schedule to the Act which enacts the new paragraph 4 of the First Schedule of the No. 2 Act of 1924. This change accounts for the disallowance of benefit in the Rotherham cases, which, I understand, occurred in connection with the Whitson and not the Easter holidays.