§ MR. PICKERSGILL (Bethnal Green, S.W.)I beg to ask the Postmaster General whether it is the fact that about 200 men of the Upper 557 Division of Clerks in the Savings Bank Department of the General Post Office, whoso length of service averages from 15 to 20 years, have been reduced to the Lower Division of the Civil Service; whether these 200 men have been ordered to give a daily attendance of seven hours instead of six, on and from the 16th instant, at a rate of remuneration for the additional hour which is about one half, and in some cases one third, of the amount paid for each of the other six hours, being, in fact, no more than that now given to Junior Clerks of the Lower Division; have both these Orders received the sanction of the Treasury; and, has the opinion of the Law Officers of the Crown been taken upon the question whether these Orders, involving an alteration of status, interfere with the legal rights of the persons affected?
§ *MR. RAIKESI have to point out that there are no Upper Division Clerks in the Savings Bank, and also that there are no longer any Lower Division Clerks. The question of assimilating "the old establishment" of the Savings Bank to the new organisation, emanating from the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Civil Establishments, has presented much difficulty, and, after giving the subject the most anxious attention, Her Majesty's Government have come to the conclusion that the best way of meeting this difficulty is to nominate officers of the Second and Third Classes to the New Second Division, thereby letting them secure the very considerable pecuniary advantages which are afforded by the Order in Council of March 21st last. I have, accordingly, given effect to this decision, and am satisfied that substantial benefit has been conferred on the officers in question, and that no legal rights have been interfered with. The hon. Member will, I think, agree with me in the views I have expressed when he has examined the full bearing of the change.