HC Deb 10 June 1974 vol 874 cc465-6W
Mr. Bruce-Gardyne

asked the Secretary of State for Employment whether he intends to exercise his consent powers to authorise implementation of the cooperative societies' wage settlement with 125,000 shop workers in their employ.

Mr. Booth

I understand the Pay Board is considering representations made by employers and the union on the warning notice of the board's intention to restrict the remuneration of the workers concerned. Should the board subsequently inform my right hon. Friend that it has difficulty in accepting the Co-operative

British Rail
National Coal Board* Wages Staff other than Workshop Workshop Wages Staff All Wages Staff
£ £ £ £
October 1969 25.10 26.10 25.65 25.95
October 1970 28.01 29.26 29.44 29.31
October 1971 31.65 32.2 30.31 31.65
October 1972 38.21 Not available Not available 36.15
October 1973 42.43 39.37 39.80 39.49
*The NCB figures include an amount for sick pay and rest days and holidays with pay but exclude the value of allowances in kind, and so may not be strictly comparable with those for other industries.

The nearest available figures for the Central Electricity Generating Board and the electricity boards and for the gas boards are those for Electricity (Minimum List Heading 602 in the Standard Industrial Classification) and for Gas (Minimum List Heading 601) from the Department's regular inquiry into the earnings of manual workers and are shown in the following table. Separate figures for the National Bus Company and the British Steel Corporation are not available from this inquiry.

Date Gas Electricity
£ £
October 1948 6.62 6.50
October 1949 6.68 7.00
October 1950 7.11 7.16
October 1951 7.79 7.98
October 1952 8.58 8.57
October 1953 8.66 8.97
October 1954 9.44 9.49

Society's wages settlement he will examine the case to see whether there are exceptional circumstances warranting a consent.

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