§ Mr. Michael Brownasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he has any plans to introduce changes in respect of the payment of wages, the operation of wages councils and rebates for employers under the contracts of Employment and Redundancy Payments Act (Northern Ireland) 1965.
§ Mr. Tom KingI intend to bring forward legislative proposals to simplify the wages council system, to modernise methods of paying wages and to give new rights to all workers concerning deductions from pay.
The proposed legislation, which will parallel proposals for Great Britain, will take those aged under 21 out of the wages council system and limit councils to setting a single minimum hourly rate and a single overtime rate. Provision will also be included to repeal the Truck Acts, in so far as they apply to Northern Ireland, and to introduce new controls to protect employees from unlawful deductions 598W from their pay and to provide a mechanism for complaint to an industrial tribunal concerning unlawful deductions from wages.
I also propose to bring forward legislation to abolish the statutory redundancy rebate (now 35 per cent.) to employers other than those with fewer than 10 employees, in line with similar proposals in Great Britain.