§ Mr. Radiceasked the Secretary of State for Employment (1) how many manual workers and how many non-manual workers are covered by negotiating machinery at national level, including statutory wage fixing bodies; and what proportion these numbers represent of the total manual and non-manual labour force, respectively;
(2) what proportion of the total labour force is covered by plant-level or domestic bargaining.
Type of collective agreement All manual occupations All non-manual occupations Number (millions) Number as percentage of all manual workers Number (millions) Number as percentage of all non-manual workers National agreement and supplementary company district or local agreement 3.6 28.6 1.0 10.1 National agreement only 5.1 40.0 4.1 42.2 Company, district or local agreement only 1.2 9.6 0.8 8.2 No collective agreement 2.8 21.8 3.8 39.4 The Wages Inspectorate estimates that about 3.3 million workers are within scope of statutory wages councils and the agricultural wages boards estimate that they cover about 0.3 million agricultural workers. Those estimates do not distinguish manual and non-manual employees. Probably about half of those covered by statutory wage regulation are also covered by voluntary collective bargaining.