§ Mr. W. H. Greenasked the First Lord of the Admiralty whether he is aware that the rate of wages paid for cooperage work in the Royal Victualling Yard, Deptford, is not in accordance with the rates laid down by the National Joint Industrial Council and the London Joint Industrial Council of the cooperage industry; and if he will have an investigation made into the matter?
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Mr. CooperIt is the policy of the Board of Admiralty to apply common standards of pay and conditions of employment to all workpeople serving in their Industrial Establishments at home, rather than to adopt for each particular trade those current in the corresponding trade outside. In accordance with this policy the rates of pay of Coopers in the Royal Victualling Yards are determined not by the Industrial Councils concerned with the Cooperage Industry, but by the Shipbuilding Trade Joint Council for Government Departments, which deals with all wage questions affecting Admiralty industrial employés in this country.