§ MR. JOHN MORLEY (Newcastle-on-Tyne)asked the Secretary to the Treasury whether it was proposed to confirm the experimental alterations of the hours of labour of Customs' officers on landing and shipping duty in the ports of Liverpool, Hull, and Grimsby, and to extend them to London and other ports of the Kingdom; and, if so, whether the officers receive any compensation for such an unfavourable alteration of the conditions under which they entered the Customs' Service; whether officers of Customs employed upon warehousing duty from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., in the Port of Newcastle, have recently been called upon to attend on landing duty from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. without additional remuneration, before doing their ordinary day's work; and, whether the Customs' authorities, in compelling such additional attendance, have acted in accordance with the assurance of the Government that, in any alterations which might be made to meet the requirements of trade, landing officers would not be compelled to work more than eight hours per day on the average?
§ MR. JACKSONThe question of the confirmation of the extended landing and shipping hours which have been in experimental operation at the ports of Liverpool, Hull, Grimsby, and Goole for some months, and for the extension of these hours to London and other ports of the Kingdom, is now under the consideration of the Treasury. Those hours 1020 under the scheme proposed will not involve an addition to the average number of hours of daily attendance on the part of officers of Customs employed on landing and shipping stations, and no question of compensation arises. The new system, to which the assurance mentioned in the last paragraph of the right hon. Member's question referred, has not been introduced at Newcastle; but officers of Customs ordinarily employed on warehouse duty at that port have for many years been required, in times of pressure, occasionally to attend during the summer months on early landing duty without additional remuneration.