§ 53. Mr. Monslowasked the Minister of Labour whether he has now come to any arrangement with representatives of the football pools with regard to their utilisation of labour.
§ Mr. IsaacsYes, Sir. I have seen representatives of the Football Pool Promoters Association, the members of which employ at least 95 per cent. of the total numbers employed by pool firms. The number34W of full-time workers involved is not more than 25,000 of whom 17,000 are in Liverpool, an area where there is considerable unemployment. Of this total 30 per cent are married women and 25 per cent. are women under 18. Eight per cent. are men, of whom one-fifth are disabled. The numbers, therefore, who could readily be transferred to more productive work, having regard to the labour demands in the areas concerned, are not large. Member firms of the Association have now agreed to arrangements under which they will not in future engage single women between the ages of 19 and 40 until the local office of the Ministry has had an opportunity of offering them any more essential work that may be available. They have also agreed to employ disabled men to the maximum practicable extent. With regard to their existing workers they will, by arrangement with the Ministry of Labour, facilitate appeals for them to volunteer for transfer to other important work for which labour cannot otherwise be found, such as cotton mills or nursing. Under these arrangements the local offices of the Ministry will have effective opportunities for influencing the employment of those actual or potential employees of these firms who might reasonably be expected to take other work more in the national interest. I am most grateful to the firms concerned for the co-operation they are affording me in this matter.