§ MR. JUSTIN M'CARTHYasked the Postmaster General, If it be true that telegraph clerks in provincial and other offices have, since the promulgation of the scheme purporting to improve their position, been called upon to work for twenty, thirty, and forty minutes daily over their established hours of duty, and without being paid for those periods at the specified rate per hour; if it is a fact that clerks who have such extra duty to perform would not be permitted to claim at the end of the week, and that, in such instances where they did claim for the total number of hours worked at this rate in the week, the claim was disallowed; and, whether it is with his approval that this system is carried out; and, if not, whether he will allow all fractions of an hour overtime to be paid for at the ordinary rate per hour?
§ MR. FAWCETTIn reply to the hon. Member, I have to point out that any system of payment for overtime 1981 needs to be very carefully watched, in order to prevent its encouraging dilatoriness in work. It has been a long-established practice in the Department not to pay for overtime under one hour, and I think it would be undesirable to alter this practice so as to allow a fraction of an hour to be counted for overtime. I shall be glad if the hon. Member will give me the instances in which overtime is daily required in the manner indicated in his Question.