§ MR.H. S. WRIGHT (Nottingham, S.)asked the Postmaster General, If he is aware that a large number of pre-transfer telegraph clerks, who were induced by "The Telegraphs Act, 1868," to enter the service of the Postmaster General, are now, after more than 20 years, only receiving, as "telegraphists," salaries varying from 33s. to 50s. per week; and, whether it is within his knowledge that immediately an officer of the Post Office, or the Telegraph branch of the Post Office, is officially designated a "clerk" he is at once 1064 entitled to the salary and privileges attaching to that title in the office at which he is located; and, if so, whether a pre-transfer clerk, who is a "clerk" to all intents and purposes in the Post Office Service, is entitled to a clerkship of the same value as that in force in the post office were he is stationed; if that is not so, what are the privileges to which the Act of 1868 entitles such pre-transfer clerks?
§ THE POSTMASTER GENEEAL (Mr. RAIKES) (Cambridge University)In reply to the hon. Member, I have to state that of the officers formerly in the service of the Telegraph Companies and now in the service of the Post Office a large number have obtained promotion; while the remainder, though on a scale of wages not exceeding 50 s. a-week, are much better off than they were under the Companies. The officers and clerks transferred to the Post Office were, in the language of the Act transferring them, to
be deemed to be, to all intents and purposes, officers and clerks in the permanent Civil Service of the Crown, and to be entitled to the same but no other privileges.The meaning of this I conceive to be simply that, in such matters as tenure of appointment and title to pension, telegraph clerks were to be in the same position as other Civil servants, and certainly not that their salaries were to be regulated otherwise than with special reference to the duties to be discharged.