§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Secretary of State for Employment, further to the reply dated 25 March, Official Report, column 404, concerning the earnings of adult male farm workers, whether he will publish in the Official Report revised figures taking account of changes in working hours.
§ Mr. AlisonThe following table sets out the available information for the hourly earnings of employees in England and Wales.
§ Mr. AlisonSuccessful applicants are entitled to claim only as much support as they need, up to a maximum determined in each case by reference to the number of jobs at risk. Companies submitting claims tend on average to claim about one third of the support that could be made available to them.
§ Mr. Woolmerasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he has received any representations from 465W the textile and clothing industries and their trade unions regarding the temporary short-time working scheme; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. AlisonWe have received several representations on behalf of the textile and clothing industry, including their trade unions. The most recent meeting took place on 5 April, attended by representatives of the British Textile Confederation, which represents both trade unions and employers in the textile and clothing industry. Their main concern was to seek changes to the scheme which would enable their industry to receive more support than they are receiving at present.
In the last annual review of special employment measures, including the temporary short-time working compensation scheme, we considered very carefully the maximum amount of support we should give to any one job in any industry. This we did, taking account of all the representations we have received, our experience with the scheme and our financial priorities, and the discussions with representatives of the industry covered all these points.
§ Mr. Woolmerasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will revise the temporary short-time working scheme so as to enable firms which go back on full-time working before exhausting their full entitlement to be allowed to "bank" their unused part for use should demand fall away again.
§ Mr. AlisonIt is a rule of the scheme that a job will be supported only once and for a specified maximum period. The reason for this is to encourage firms to overcome their temporary difficulties without relying on support for short-time work for an indefinite period. We have no plans to change this rule.