§ MR. MAURICE HEALY (Cork)asked the Secretary to the Treasury, Whether it is the fact that while postmen attached to other offices of a similar status are eligible for promotion to positions of a higher grade in the service, such as that of letter sorter, when vacancies occur, the postmen attached to the Cork Post Office are excluded from any such privilege; and, whether it is also the fact that Cork postmen (married or single) receive, while sick, only half-pay, whereas Dublin postmen while sick receive (if married) full pay, and (if single) three-fourths pay, Dublin and Cork being both first class offices; and, if so, what reason exists for subjecting Cork postmen, whose wages are twenty-five per cent less than those paid in other first class offices, to these additional disadvantages?
§ THE SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY (Mr. HENRY H. FOWLER) (Wolverhampton, E.)It is not easy, within the limits of an ordinary answer, to explain this subject fully; but, briefly, it may be stated that the circumstances of Cork are so entirely different to the circumstances of Dublin and of certain other towns that no comparison can be made between them. The population is different, the volume of business different, 1008 the size of the offices different, and also the rate of wages. As regards sick pay, the Regulations of the Service permit an established postman to have half-pay during absence. At one or two offices, of which Dublin is one, by virtue of an old Regulation applicable to those offices only, postmen are allowed more than half-pay. It was decided some time ago that no new exceptions would be allowed, and the Postmaster General is considering whether the old Regulation should not now be abrogated.