HC Deb 11 December 1958 vol 597 c114W
99. Mr. Swingler

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies what minimum wage legislation exists in Kenya and Tanganyika, respectively; on what basis minimum wages are assessed; and if the standards apply equally to agricultural and industrial workers.

Mr. Lennox-Boyd

Legislation in both territories empowers the Government to establish wage-fixing bodies, which may be on either an industrial or a geographical basis. In Tanganyika, as in the United Kingdom, they are bound by no specific criteria laid down by the Government. In Kenya the declared aim of the Government is to provide adult male workers in urban areas with a minimum wage sufficient to meet the needs of man and wife. In neither territory have wage- fixing bodies yet been set up for agricultural workers, but the Governor of Kenya foreshadowed the establishment of suitable machinery for this purpose in his speech to Legislative Council on 4th November.

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