§ Mr. Austin MitchellTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment, pursuant to his answer of 12 July,Official Report, column 539, comparing the increase in the real earnings of railway signal workers with those of other workers, what has been the percentage increase since 1979 in the real-wage cost of operating the railway signal system; what proportion of the sample quoted in his answer consisted of railway signal workers; and why he was unable to give the figures for such workers solely.
§ Mr. OppenheimThe trend in the wages costs of operating the railway signalling system is a management matter for the industry.
In the 1993 "New Earnings Survey" sample, 56 full-time employees were classified as railway signal operatives and crossing keepers and 10 were classified as shunters and point operatives. In the combined category and it is impossible to separately identify those who were railway signal operatives.
Information on the increases in earnings between 1979 and 1993 of railway signal workers alone could not be given because the relevant category of the occupation coding scheme used between 1979 and 1990 included railway signal workers and the other workers.