§ DR. FARQUHARSON (Aberdeenshire, W.)I beg to ask the Postmaster General whether he is aware of the heavy sickness that prevails among the telegraph staff employed at Moorgate Street Buildings, being a higher average by nearly 50 per cent. than in any other office; whether the clerks have frequently petitioned the authorities, pointing out the unsanitary conditions under which they are compelled to eat their luncheon, and praying for time to partake of their other meals; whether this is the only office in the telegraph service where systematic overtime prevails among the senior clerks, who perform duty for seven days a week for eleven months in every year; and whether, having regard to these facts, he will concede the same privilege to these clerks of 20 minutes for meals, already granted to officers in similar offices, abolish systematic overtime, and obtain a report from the medical officer as to the alleged sanitary conditions?
§ THE POSTMASTER GENERAL (Sir J. FERGUSSON,) Manchester, N.E.I apologise for not being in my place when this question was called, and perhaps I may be allowed to explain that my delay was due to desire not to omit any answer, but notices of these questions 1194 only appeared this morning, and considerable reference had to be made. No; I am not aware of such heavy sickness. The whole force employed at Moorgate Street Buildings consists of ten persons, and, except in the case of two who are constitutionally weak, the absence from illness is below the average. The second paragraph of the question I must answer in the negative. Only one petition is remembered in recent years, and that was for leave to obtain their dinners outside—a request which, of course, could not be granted. It is a rule to which no exception is allowed that telegraphists are not to leave the building until their duty for the day is over. This is not the only office where systematic overtime prevails amongst the senior telegraphists; and this must be so whenever, as in Moorgate Street Buildings, an office is open on Sunday. It would obviously be impossible to have a junior in charge on Sundays or at night. But the seniors, indeed, so far from objecting to the overtime, are pleased to get it. For one meal in the day they have already, not 20, but 30 minutes. The seniors would make it a ground of complaint if overtime were abolished, and there is no reason whatever to believe that the condition of the Moorgate Street Buildings is unsanitary.