§ Mr. Campbell-Savoursasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will investigate allegations that officers in the Northern regional office of his Department are demanding from applicant firms for short-time working compensation scheme subsidies, what are the names of those persons being made redundant if he will ensure that this new practice ceases and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Jim Lester[pursuant to his reply 18 February 1980]: The explanatory leaflet on the temporary short-time work- 204W ing compensation scheme makes it clear that support under the scheme is available only where employers adopt short-time working as an alternative to implementing redundancies. It is stated in the leaflet that employers must provide evidence that they genuinely intend to make 10 or more workers redundant in each establishment concerned; the nature of the evidence to show this may vary in particular cases.
It is also stated in the leaflet that employers must ensure that the workers on short-time in any week can be identified in their records.