Orders of the Day — Compulsory Control of Incomes

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 13 February 1969.

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Photo of Mrs Barbara Castle Mrs Barbara Castle , Blackburn 12:00, 13 February 1969

I accept the right hon. Gentleman's disclaimer of the honour I was heaping upon him. Clearly, the right hon. Member for Mitcham must have been sitting at his feet.

The second interesting thing about the Motion is the signatories to it. Any Motion on prices and incomes policy which unites the right hon. Member for Enfield, West—who, a few days ago, told the National Federation of Building Trade Employers: I cannot forecast a happy or long life for the Prices and Incomes Board under a Conservative Administration"— with the right hon. Member for Barnet (Mr. Maudling)—who is on record as a supporter of a prices and incomes policy—simply has to be negative.

What about the right hon. Member for Bexley (Mr. Heath)? He delivered himself of a speech to the Young Conservatives' national conference the other day in which he managed, at one and the same time, to condemn what he called the "Socialist misery-go-round", and the present level of public expenditure and the Government's withdrawal from east of Suez. Therefore, it is not surprising that he is condeming the Government's failure to create misery among wage-earners; it is merely indecent.

Incidentally, it is nicely ironic that the right hon. Member for Enfield, West should have chosen an audience of building trades employers in which to denounce the prices and incomes policy, because he is on a winner both ways. He can appear as the champion of the poor oppressed building worker, robbed of his penny by this cruel Government, while assuring the building trades employers that under the Conservatives they would never more have to suffer the inquisition of the Prices and Incomes Board which, in its Report on the pay claim, trounced them for the poor quality of their management, the excessive use of overtime due to poor site organization, and their failure to promote incentive bonus schemes effectively linked to increased productivity.

Let me tell the right hon. Gentleman that what is of far more concern to building workers' unions than the penny an hour is chaotic conditions of organisation and of wages structures in this industry as revealed by the Phelps Brown Report and the Reports of the Prices and Incomes Board. What the building workers' unions want is a chance to work out proper productivity schemes to replace the present farcical system of so-called incentive bonus schemes, which may cover only two-fifths of the workers in the industry, with authentic bonus schemes genuinely related to output. They want decent working conditions on the site, stronger trade union organisation, greater continuity of employment and a curb on the abuses of labour-only sub-contracting, which was a growing menace to trade union organisation and the national Exchequer long before the Selective Employment Tax appeared on the scene.

It is these improvements which the work of the Prices and Incomes Board holds out to them. It is these improvements which my right hon. Friend the Minister of Public Building and Works and I have been discussing with them only in the last few days, pledging the Government's support in realising them and thus keeping my promise that once the argument about the interim settlement was out of the way we could work out together ways of giving building workers the chance of organised advancement for which they looked in vain under the Conservatives.

My right hon. Friend and I have already set up a working party to pave the way for policy decisions on legislation. [Laughter.] Hon. Members opposite should not show their total frivolity. When did they even sit down and study the problem of labour-only sub-contracting in this industry, let alone start preparing the legislation to solve the problem and deal with the self-employment in the industry? It is hoped that the unions will be joining in these discussions as from next week, followed soon, I hope, by the employers. My right hon. Friend the Minister of Public Building and Works is also reviewing his own contract procedures with a view to strengthening the provisions governing the use of labour-only sub-contracting on contracts let by his Department, thus taking the Government action which the Prices and Incomes Board Report urged.

The building workers' claim, far from being a matter on which to accuse the Government, is a good starting point from which to discuss the purpose of a productivity, prices and incomes policy. What is the purpose which the Motion says the policy has failed to achieve? I would not expect Conservatives to grasp it; it is far too civilised a concept for them to understand. The purpose is not, as the Opposition argue outside the House, to make workers shoulder the whole burden of national economic recovery by holding down wages but letting prices and all other incomes rise. If that had been the purpose, we would indeed have failed. Is it this failure which we are asked to condemn by our vote tonight? If so, I plead guilty to it.