HC Deb 17 December 1941 vol 376 c1958W
Sir H. Williams

asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Supply in how many Royal Ordnance Factories has production work on Sundays been stopped since the publication last summer of the Seventeenth Report of the Select Committee on National Expenditure?

Mr. Harold Macmillan

Since the publication of the Seventeenth Report from the Select Committee on National Expenditure, the number of shifts worked in Royal Ordnance filling factories has been reduced from 20 to 18 per week by the discontinuance of the Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning shifts. This has eliminated work on Sundays from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. At the explosives factories, where continuous working is necessary, women work on a rota system, under which they have one day's rest each week. At the engineering factories, the position is that at seven factories no production work is done on Sundays; at seven others production work is done on alternate Sundays; and at one other factory production work is done on two Sundays out of three. At five other engineering factories, production work is done on a three shift basis; at three of these, women work 18 shifts a week and at two, 19 shifts a week.