§ Mr. Michael Forsythasked the Secretary of State for Employment how many firms were inspected by the Wages Inspectorate in each of the last five years; and of those firms inspected how many were found to be underpaying at least one of their workers.
§ Mr. Peter BottomleyThe information is given in the following table:
441W
1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 Establishments found to be underpaying one or more workers 10,969 12,154 10,074 9,269 9,842 Workers underpaid as a percentage of those whose pay was checked by all methods 9.5 9.9 12.4 6.2 6.3
§ Mr. Michael Forsythasked the Secretary of State for Employment how many wages inspectors and other staff have been employed by the Wages Inspectorate in each of the past five years; and what has been the cost to public funds.
October each year 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 Outdoor inspectors in post 160 155 117½ 116 116 Other divisional staff in post 122½ 125½ 110½ 95 96 Cost in the relevant financial year (£ million) 2.71 3.34 2.74 2.77 2.99
§ Mr. Gerald Howarthasked the Secretary of State for Employment for each of the past five years (a) how many workers' wages were examined by the Wages Inspectorate, (b) how many workers were paid arrears of wages as a result of examination by the Wages
1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 Workers whose pay was checked by visit 244,941 269,134 181,974 165,118 139,305 Workers whose pay was checked other than by visit Not available 26,357 23,830 162,509 193,548 Total 244,941 295,491 205,804 327,627 332,853 Workers paid arrears 22,457 28,373 24,117 18,562 18,494 Arrears paid £1,511,760 £2,100,512 £2,037,930 £1,861,783 £1,860,110 Average arrears paid per worker checked £6.17 £7.11 £9.90 £5.68 £5.59 Since 1979, in addition to checks by visit, a number of other successful methods for checking the pay of workers have been developed. A detailed explanation of the inspectorate's methods of checking pay and the results in 1983 is given in pages 451 and 452 of the October 1984 issue of Employment Gazette. A copy has been placed in the Library.
§ Mr. Gerald Howarthasked the Secretary of State for Employment what measures have been taken to simplify the Wages Inspectorate regulations since the problems of compliance were first pointed out in the Employment Gazette in 1977.
§ Mr. Peter BottomleyThe scope for simplifying wages orders is limited by the complexity of the provisions included in them which are matters for the councils themselves. The Department of Employment has over the years encouraged and assisted wages councils to simplify their orders as much as possible. Many councils have taken steps to try to make the meaning of their orders clearer and some have included guidance notes to aid users. More recently, the Wages Inspectorate has prepared brief digests of the main provisions of the orders of the seven largest councils. These cover about 90 per cent. of all wages council workers.
442W
§ Mr. Peter BottomleyThe figures requested are given in the following table:
Inspectorate, (c) what was the total arrears in wages paid, and (d) what was the average arrears paid per worker examined.
§ Mr. Peter BottomleyThe information requested is given in the following table: