§ MR. P. O'BRIEN (Monaghan, N.)asked the Postmaster General, If he will state what number of hours the General Post Office (London) porters have to work; whether there is any promotion open to them as sorters, postmen, or messengers; whether they are liable to a stoppage of pay when absent from sickness, which is not required from men similarly employed in other Departments; and, whether it is a fact that they are not allowed Bank Holidays?
§ THE POSTMASTER GENERAL (Mr. RAIKES) (Cambridge University)The Post Office porters in London work, as a rule, from eight and a-half to nine hours a-day. Promotion is open to them as postmen, as messengers, and also, as far as the limits of age correspond, as sorters. During absence from illness they receive exactly the same proportion of their pay as members of corresponding, 1726 or nearly corresponding, class in the Post Office—that is to say, two-thirds. On Bank Holidays the indoor work of the Post Office is much the same as on other days. Anything in the shape of a general holiday is, therefore, impossible. But in the case of the porters, as of other members of the indoor force, the superintending officers have instructions to lot as many as possible be away.