MR. O'BRIENasked the Postmaster General, Whether, under the arrangement come to at the general revision of the rates of pay of telegraphists and sorters on 1st April 1881, all sorters and telegraphists were to receive extra pay for any duty done on Sundays in excess of two hours; whether all telegraphists and sorters employed in office duty have in fact received such extra pay since 1st April 1881; whether the men employed as sorters on the London and Holyhead Travelling Post Office are in receipt of extra pay for all duty performed on Sundays; why the men engaged as sorters in the Travelling Post Office in Ireland do not receive extra pay for excess duty on Sundays; and, whether he will give an order that they shall in future receive such extra pay, together with the arrears receivable since the date of the revision?
§ MR. FAWCETTSir, in reply to the hon. Member, I have to state that since the 1st of April, 1881, sorting clerks and telegraphists have been granted extra pay for all extra duty in excess of two hours done on Sunday. A concession of much the same kind has been made to the sorters employed in the London and Holyhead Travelling Post Office since the 1st of October last. It is not intended that the mail sorters on the Irish railways should be in a worse position with regard to Sunday duty than those employed in England, and arrangements are being made to place them, as far as possible, on an equality.