§ MR. FENWICK (Northumberland, Wansbeck)asked the Postmaster General, Whether it is true that the Treasury recently discovered that clerks employed at the Central Telegraph Office have for the past 18 years been paid a day's pay too much; whether two days' pay was deducted from the salaries of the staff after one week's notice; whether, as a consequence of this discovery, fortnightly payments have been abolished; and, whether the clerks have complained of such change having been made in the mode of payment; and, if so, whether he will consider the advisability of paying these clerks weekly, as 319 is done in several other branches of the Post Office service?
§ THE POSTMASTER GENERAL (Mr. RAIKES) (Cambridge University)In reply to the hon. Member, I have to state that the over-payment to which he alludes in his Question was brought under my notice by the Comptroller and Auditor General. Most of the officers employed at the Central Telegraph Office are paid on a scale of annual salaries, and in consequence of payment being made fortnightly an extra day's payment was made in ordinary years and two days' extra payment in leap years; the question having been referred to the Treasury, it was decided that from and after the 31st of March, 1887, the actual annual salary only should be paid, and, consequently, in making the last payment for the year to the 31st of March last, being leap year, the extra payment for two days was not made. As I was unwilling to alter the period of payment, I gave instructions that an advance of salary calculated to the nearest pound should be made in the middle of every month, the balance being paid at the end of the month. And I do not think it would be the wish of the officers that their wages should be paid weekly.