Skip to main content

Essential Work Orders

Volume 415: debated on Thursday 1 November 1945

The text on this page has been created from Hansard archive content, it may contain typographical errors.

asked the Minister of Labour if he is aware that a business firm in Halifax, which has given public notice of its intention to leave the town in two years, is using powers under the Emer- gency Regulations to prevent such of its present employees as have the opportunity from taking permanent employment elsewhere; and what steps he proposes to take to stop this practice.

:I would remind my hon. Friend that under the Essential Work Orders permission to leave employment is granted or refused, not by the firm but by a National Service Officer, and that either party, if aggrieved, has the right to appeal to an independent appeal board against that decision. I am not aware of any individual case where refusal of permission to leave the firm has caused exceptional hardship.