There is one aspect of this problem that I do not think is touched by the Bill, but which is a very closely related problem. This Bill seems to concern itself with the case of certain persons whose bonus agreement was stabilised by the 1940 Act, but there is the case of other persons who are affected by what flowed out of the 1940 Act, and flowed from the Government's stabilisation policy. I refer to the case of the ordinary employees of the Dublin Corporation. In February, 1940, following a dispute between the Union representing those employees and the city manager, an effort was made to devise a basis of regulating the wages of what might be described as the general workers employed by the Corporation. It was then suggested to the Union concerned that they should consent to an arrangement by which the wages of the manipulative staff would be regulated by reference to a cost-of-living index figure which was to be ascertained periodically by the Department of Industry and Commerce.
In order to avoid any friction then or at a future date as to the regulation of wage scales and in order to have the matter put on some satisfactory basis, the union, speaking for the employees concerned, consented to this arrangement. In other words, they accepted the principle of regulation of wages by reference to a cost-of-living index figure. However, when they asked the corporation to indicate to what extent wages would move having regard to the movement in the index figure, the corporation offered certain proposals which the union viewed as unreasonable, as the index figure would have to rise pretty substantially before they received anything like reasonable compensation for the rise in prices. A deadlock then occurred between the union on the one hand and the city manager on the other hand.
While they were endeavouring to overcome the difficulties which had been created and were trying to get some kind of agreement with the corporation as to the rate at which their wages would change in future in relation to the index figure, the Government announced its general stabilisation policy. It implemented that policy in Emergency Powers Order No. 83, the effect of which was to prevent any employee securing an increase in wages at that stage. Subsequently, that Order was modified and certain increases were permitted. Those increases have now reached a permitted maximum of 11/- a week. The employees of the Dublin Corporation concerned, that is, the manipulative staff, have always felt that they got a rather raw deal. They were endeavouring to put their wages on a cost-of-living bonus basis and have them regulated according to a rise or fall in the index figure, but, whilst the negotiations were in progress, Emergency Powers Order No. 83 clamped down on the general level of wages and prohibited any increase in the wages paid on the 5th May, 1941.
If the Government had not implemented the Order at that time, it is quite likely that some solution of this difficulty would have been found and then the corporation staff would have their wages regulated to-day, not on the 1941 rates plus the emergency bonus amounting to a maximum of 11/- but rather to the rise and fall in the index figure. That would ensure them much better compensation for the rise in the cost of living than they are receiving by reason of the meagre maximum allowance of 11/- per week. This Bill deals only with the amendment of the 1940 Act and, perhaps, cannot be applied to cover a case of that kind, but I would ask the Minister to examine the merits of the issue and give sympathetic consideration to the recommendations which may have been made to him, or certainly will be made to him, by the union concerned.
There is at least a case for sympathetic consideration of the claim and, if the Minister would examine it, he may find it equitable to permit the manipulative staff to receive a higher rate of remuneration than that which they are receiving at present by reason of the fact that their wages were clamped down by the operation of the Emergency Powers Order. The Minister may be familiar with the issues involved and, if so, perhaps he would say now whether he has examined the matter and will hold out any hope of permitting an increase in that case because of the unusual circumstances surrounding the collapse of the negotiations which were on foot when Order No. 83 was introduced.