General and miscellaneous records of the central administration of the Ministry of...

Division within LAB

1886-2003

General and miscellaneous records of the central administration of the creating bodies, committees and corporations, including Private Office papers and publications.

Registered files are in LAB 12 and LAB 110.

Departmental correspondence files (1897-1933) are in LAB 2, with indexes in LAB 7.

Private and Private Office and personnel papers are in LAB 25, LAB 43, LAB 77 and LAB 79.

Publications and annual reports are in LAB 37, LAB 44 and LAB 71. Circulars and codes of instruction are in LAB 29; digital records in LAB 120. Specimens of stock forms are in LAB 80

Papers of the Committee on Women in Industry are in LAB 5, with those of the National Service Hostels Corporation in LAB 22, and the Royal Commission on Trade Unions and Employers' Associations in LAB 28.

Files relating to cases referred to the parliamentary commissioners are in LAB 49, with Umpire's decisions in appeals relating to reinstatement in civil employment in LAB 78. Records concerning resettlement after demobilisation are in LAB 32. Personal files may be found in LAB 97. Files documenting the investigation of cases concerning the department brought before the Race Relations Board are in LAB 50.

Papers concerning holidays with pay are in LAB 31. Miscellaneous papers concerning the coal mining industry dispute and General Strike 1926 are in LAB 27. Correspondence and papers relating to official histories are in LAB 76. Specimens of series of documents destroyed are in LAB 900.

Sound recordings of recruiting speeches by famous personalities, which were formerly in LAB 74, have been transferred to the National Sound Archive.

Public Record(s)

English

• Department of Employment and Productivity, Establishments Division, 1968-1970
• Department of Employment, Establishments Division, 1970-1975
• Ministry of Labour and National Service, Organisation and Establishments Department, 1945-1959
• Ministry of Labour and National Service, Services and Establishments Department, 1939-1945
• Ministry of Labour, Establishments Department, 1918-1929
• Ministry of Labour, Establishments Department, 1964-1968
• Ministry of Labour, Organisation and Establishments Department, 1959-1964
• Ministry of Labour, Services and Establishments Department, 1929-1939

27 series

Topics

Labour

Pay and pensions

Race relations

Coal

Official publications

Mining and quarrying

Sex and gender

Personal and family papers

An Establishments Department was formally created in December 1918 out of a subsidiary section of the General Manager's Department, although the latter retained some responsibilities for equipment and premises of employment exchanges until 1920. The Department supervised appointments, leave, pay, promotion, welfare and discipline of staff at the centre; it also supervised the work of the ministry's Whitley Council and was in charge of the ministry's publicity and public relations generally. In 1929 it became responsible for the executive control and business management of the employment exchanges, which it took over from the Employment and Insurance Department and was renamed Services and Establishments Department. In 1945 at the end of the War, the section was renamed the Organisation and Establishments Department and developed further liaison with outside departments and ministries for which the ministry provided an agency service.