HC Deb 21 July 1873 vol 217 cc662-3
LORD GEORGE HAMILTON

asked the President of the Board of Trade, Whether a certain number of Temporary Clerks were promoted in 1872, after passing examinations before the Civil Service Commissioners, to the Establishment as Third Class Clerks in the General Register and Record Office of Shipping and Seamen; whether the annual leave, to which the Third Class Established Clerks were entitled according to the printed regulations of the Board of Trade of 1866, was thirty-six days; whether, on the 30th May 1873, the following Order was issued:— The question of annual holidays will be reconsidered by the Board of Trade; pending the Lords' decision no more than four weeks (twenty-four days) will be allowed Third Class Clerks who were appointed to the Establishment subsequent to August last; and, whether, on the 16th June 1873, an Order was issued signed by the President of the Board of Trade, fixing the annual leave of these Clerks at twenty-four days; and, if so, whether he adheres to the statement that the annual leave of a certain number of established Clerks has not been diminished?

MR. CHICHESTER FORTESCUE,

in reply, said, that with regard to the portion of the noble Lord's Question respecting the Order of the 30th May, that it was correct, and that such an Order had been issued. No temporary clerks had been "promoted" in the ordinary sense of that word in the year 1872, and there had been no curtailment in anybody's leave of absence. Thirty-six days of leave were allowed to the old third-class establishment clerks; but the three gentlemen who had been fortunate enough to interest the noble Lord in their cause reached the position of third-class clerks on the establishment under very peculiar circumstances. They were temporary clerks, or writers, in connection with the Office of the Board of Trade and the dependent department of the General Register and Record Office of Shipping and Seamen. They then had a week less of leave of absence than they now enjoyed, and they had no claim whatever either to an increase of leave or to be on the establishment; but when the new system under the Order in Council was introduced which limited the non-established officers to the lower class of writers and copyists, and which interfered unfavourably with the prospects of many of the non-established gentlemen who had been employed before, these temporary clerks were placed on the establishment as an act of grace, with the permission of the Chancellor of the Exchequer.