HC Deb 01 April 1898 vol 55 cc1661-2
CAPTAIN NORTON

I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether he will consider the advisability of altering the Treasury Minute 6215 (1896), which compels a "Watcher" to give an attendance of 300 days in one year to entitle him to a year's service, which will count towards his claim for sick pay allowance and gratuity, as set out in Customs G. O. 21 (1896); and whether he will cause inquiry to be made into the cases of Watchers who have been deprived of a gratuity through this Treasury Minute, it being impossible, under the old conditions of employment, for an extra C. D. officer, now a Watcher, to make 300 days in one year?

MR. HANBURY

I have this matter under consideration, and will communicate with the Board of Customs on the subject.

CAPTAIN NORTON

I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether he can state if the men employed in the Customs Department as watchers at a wage of 21s. per week for a 54 hours' week are now performing efficiently the duties formerly allotted to the established outdoor officers, whose maximum salary was £101 per annum, with two-thirds of their salary as a retiring pension, their regular number of hours per day being eight in summer and seven in winter; and whether he will consider the advisability of carrying out the Fair Wages Resolution of 1891, by having these officers' wages raised to the minimum of 24s. per week for a 48-hour week?

MR. HANBURY

It is the fact that the Customs Watchers, whose wages are 21s. a week, perform efficiently some of the duties which formerly fell to established outdoor officers. The Customs Watchers are liable to a full attendance of 54 hours a week, but I understand that it is only in rare instances that they are required to work that number of hours. One of the objects of the establishment of the body of Customs Watchers was to put an end to a system under which certain duties were being discharged by officers on an unnecessarily high scale of pay. Only the inferior duties of the former outdoor officers have been transferred to the Watchers, and their pay and conditions of service were fixed with special reference to the character of the work to be performed by them.