§ Mr. Rookerasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will write to the 2,850 companies his Department has identified which have at one and the same time employees working short-time and employees working overtime, asking 292W them to review working arrangements within the company.
§ Mr. John FraserIn his reply to my hon. Friend's Questions on 16th March, my right hon. Friend the Minister of State said that in connection with a recent employment survey over 11,500 returns were processed. These included about 250 with figures for short-time but not for overtime and about 8,400 with figures for overtime but not for short-time. Of the remaining 2,850, only 600 showed both overtime and short-time. The remainder showed neither.
The circumstances in which firms have both overtime and short-time will vary with individual cases; it is possible for example, that a firm with several departments might have overtime in one department and short-time in another. I consider that these matters are best dealt with locally where all the factors are known and I do not propose to write to the firms concerned.