§ Miss Maynardasked the Secretary of State for Employment whether the award of the Agricultural Wages Board to farm workers gives them the maximum entitlement under the social contract.
§ Mr. Harold WalkerThe pay guidelines set out in Annex B to the White Paper "The Attack on Inflation—the Second Year" (Cmnd. 6507) provide a limit for pay increases; they do not constitute an entitlement. The Agricultural Wages Board for England and Wales, which is an independent statutory body, made an award on 6th December which increased the existing minimum rates for whole-time workers and regular part-time workers aged 20 and over by the maximum amount permissable under the guidelines. For some other workers the award increased the minimum rates by slightly less than the maximum amount permissible. The Board has publicly stated that its award in no way prevents employers and workers negotiating increases up to 5 per cent. on gross earnings within the pay guidelines.
82Wfor each year since 1960: (a) the number of complaints made to the Department and (b) the number of complaints subsequently referred to arbitration; and whether he will give a quarterly breakdown of these figures for the period since the counter-inflation policy was introduced on 1st August 1975.
§ Mr. Harold WalkerThe information is as follows: