Employment Practices Of A Manufacturer In Cumbria (No 1)

EDM number 500 in 1992-93, proposed by DN Campbell-Savours on 14/07/1992.

That this House notes, with grave concern, the activities of the directors and management of a particular manufacturing company who, having recently acquired a plant in Cumbria, have sought to force principally women part-time employees, who have worked for the acquired firm, in some cases for six or seven years, to involuntarily shift to inflexible full-time working; notes that women employees with children who earn ú2.37 per hour are being told to hire childminders a a rate of ú2 per hour notes that ill-mannered and inconsiderate managers at the Cumbrian plant have told employees who have questioned company attitudes to `s-- off' and have advised part-time workers with children to cease working for the company if they wanted to `play housewife'; notes that recently the company has, in effect, sacked a large number of its loyal workforce who refused to comply with new and onerous conditions of employment; notes that the terms of The Employees Handbook, Company Practices, Rules and Procedures lays down for example, that in the case of bereavement and the death of an employee's close friend `... one day may be taken without pay, at the discretion of the departmental manager, supervisor, concerned in order to attend the funeral'; notes that company employment practices actually restrict employees' own free time, evening, social activities; and notes that the company's group profits after tax, were over ú600,000 in 1991, that the Chairman's emoluments were over ú400,000 and that other directors were paid over ú95,000 in 1991.

This motion has been signed by a total of 23 MPs.