§ Mr. J. Rodgersasked the Minister of Labour if he will state the total number of people gainfully employed, the number of people belonging to trades unions, and the number of trade unionists who contracted out of paying the political levy, at the nearest convenient date.
§ Mr. HareAt the end of December, 1959, about 22,550,000 people were gainfully employed and about 9,600,000 belonged to trade unions. The Report of the Chief Registrar of Friendly Societies for 1959 states that trade unions which collected contributions to political funds had 7,688,000 members, of whom 917,000 had "contracted out" of paying the political levy.