§ MR. HENNIKER HEATON (Canterbury)I beg to ask the Postmaster General whether he can furnish any particulars of the way in which the increased sum recently voted for postal salaries and wages has been distributed; what class or classes have benefited by the increase, and to what extent; and what classes have been excluded from benefit; what proportion of the increase was assigned to the employees in London, and what to the employees in the rest of the United Kingdom; and will be state the total number of persons that have received 448 increases, and the total amount so distributed?
§ SIR JAMES FERGUSSONThe information desired in the first paragraph of my hon. Friend's question will be found in great detail in the present Estimates. A convenient summary showing the growth of each subhead of the Vote is given on page 56 of the Post Office Estimates, and on page 125 of the Telegraph Estimates. It will there be seen, on examining Sub-heads A and C of the Postal Vote, and Sub-heads E and G of the Telegraph Votes, how large are the increases in respect of salaries and wages; and in order to ascertain what classes have benefited, it will be necessary for the hon. Member to compare the salaries and wages given in the current Estimates with the salaries and wages given in the Estimates of 1890–91. It would not be practicable to give the information asked for in greater detail. Within the last two years nearly every branch of this vast Department has been overhauled, the wages examined, and, where necessary, revisions have been carried out. It is not correct to say that classes have been excluded from benefit. Those cases which have been examined have been dealt with according to their merits. The sum voted was not distributed in the way my hon. Friend (Mr. H. Heaton) seems to think; and, indeed, it would not have been practicable to have assigned a proportion to London and a proportion to the rest of the United Kingdom, to be spent in the two divisions. What occurred was that the rates of pay were examined, fixed according to the merits of the case, and the amounts payable under the Subheads A and C and Sub-heads E and G were simply the result of arithmetical calculation depending upon the numbers employed. I am unable to state accurately how many persons received increases, but the total growth for this year only of both Votes as given in the Estimates amounts to over £280,000. It should not be overlooked that, besides addition to the rate of wages, a great many other improvements costing money were granted in 1890—namely, improvement in the rate of overtime; additional pay for Sunday work; additional pay for 449 Bank Holidays; revision of superintending classes, and payment for sick leave.