§ 39. Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Secretary of State for Employment whether he will now give the total inclusive costs to the Exchequer of all items of expenditure involved in resolving the industrial dispute affecting the railways, including legal costs of the National Industrial Relations Court, printing, and the ballot.
51W
§ Mr. Chichester-ClarkAs regards the cost of the ballot I would refer the hon. Member to the reply given by my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State to the hon. Member for Darlington (Mr. Ted Fletcher) on 25th May. No further information about costs is available at present.
§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Secretary of State for Employment whether he will make a statement on the conduct by the Commission on Industrial Relations of the ballot of railwaymen, including what steps were taken to ensure fairness, to control expenditure on propaganda by the disputants, and to appoint impartial tellers; and whether representatives of the disputants were invited to act as tellers, and with what result.
§ Mr. Chichester-ClarkUnder Section 144(4) of the Industrial Relations Act, a ballot relating to industrial action has to be conducted according to rules made by the commission for the proper conduct of the ballot and for keeping the voting secret. A copy of the rules for the conduct of the ballot of railwaymen has been placed in the Library.
The commission has no control over expenditure by the parties on propaganda.
I understand that the British Railways Board and the three unions concerned nominated observers who were present while the votes were checked and counted by CIR staff.
§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Secretary of State for Employment why the staff of the National Industrial Relations Court refused to work on Saturday and Sunday, 27th and 28th May, 1972, at counting the railway workers' ballot papers; how many of his Department volunteered for this work and at what salaries; and how these compared with the pay of those employees who refused to work.
§ Mr. Chichester-ClarkThe counting of the ballot papers is the responsibility of the Commission on Industrial Relations, not of the Industrial Court. I understand that some members of the commission's staff belonging to grades not entitled to overtime payments refused weekend work because they were dissatisfied with the proposed arrangements52W for time off in lieu. Sixteen officers of my Department volunteered to assist the commission with the count. They were employed under the appropriate Civil Service conditions and these were also followed in the case of the CIR staff engaged in the work.