The Control of Labour
Mr. Bevin's last act before leaving the Ministry of Labour was to sanction an order relaxing the extent and the severity of the control of labour, and defining the conditions under which control will operate -in the period before the end of the war, with Japan. There is no question at present of ending control. Though the labour market will be reinforced by the demobilisation of considerable numbers of Service-men and women, and by the release of workers from some forms of munition work, there will still be a shortage of labour in almost every field of activity. Priorities must be insisted on. Apart from munitions, housing and certain essential civilian industries will have the highest claims for labour, and these will have to be under the Essential Work Order. Just as in the allocation of materials the demands of the building trade will rank first, and those of the export industries will have high priority, so the labour re- quired in these trades must be distributed in corresponding order. The machinery of the employment exchanges and appointment offices is to be used to the utmost, but the hope is expressed by the Ministry that the field of compulsion, or "direction," can be brought within very narrow limits. This is important, for if the re-allocation of labour to the needs of trade and industry and pro- fessional work is to proceed smoothly, there must be elasticity ; there must be fullest consideration of the fitness of a worker for this or that job, which in every individual case has to be weighed against varying priority claims, although in the main these claims must be satisfied. The public realises the necessity of retaining controls ; it is for the Government to see that they are no more numerous nor more irksome than they need be.
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