§ Brigadier-General Clifton Brownasked the Minister of Agriculture how many exemptions for a lower wage and shorter hours were granted by county agricultural wages boards in 1939 to labourers who, by reason of age or infirmities, became unfit for whole-time employment and who wished to continue in employment?
§ Sir R. Dorman-SmithThe permits which may be granted under the Agricultural Wages (Regulation) Act, 1924, to workers who were so affected by physical injury, mental deficiency or infirmity due to age or other cause, as to be incapable of earning the minimum rate, exempt the employment of those workers from the minimum wage provisions of the Act subject to such conditions as may be specified in the permit. The number of permits granted by Agricultural Wages Committees in England and Wales in 1939 was 4,177, but I have no details to show the number of cases, within this total, in which a reduced number of hours had been specified as a condition.