HC Deb 05 August 1898 vol 64 cc272-3
MR. CHANNING (Northamptonshire, E.)

I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General; whether the attention of the Department has been drawn to the face that the postal staff at Rushden, Northants, have not received the full rise of 1s. 6d. guaranteed to them in pursuance of the recommendations of the Tweedmouth Commission, but have, owing to the change of date of year from 23rd February to 1st April, been assigned 6d. a week less than the increased wage thus guaranteed; whether the maximum pay at Rushden is 22s. per week, while at Wellingborough the maximum pay for the same class is 24s. per week, although the rent of ,houses and cost of living are equally high at Rushden; whether, in the case of the auxiliary postmen employed for Sunday duty, the increase of pay assigned to them for this Sunday duty is being deducted from their ordinary pay for their week-day work; and whether steps will be taken by the Postmaster General to remove these grounds for complaint?

MR. HANBURY

The wages of the two postmen at Rushden sub-office appear to have been adjusted on the 1st April, 1897, like those of other postmen, to give them the benefit to which they were entitled under the Tweedmouth Committee scheme, and on the 1st April, 1898, they received the full increment of 1s. 6d. a week each. It is true that the maximum of their scale is 2s. less than that assigned to the postmen at Wellingborough, the head office of Rushden, and this is also in accordance with the usual practice. As regards the auxiliaries, it was found in carrying out the revision that three of them were being paid somewhat in excess of the proper scale, and no further sum became due to them in respect of their Sunday duty, because the wages already included Sunday pay calculated at the higher rate.

MR. CHANNING

With regard to paragraph two of the Question, is not the scale of pay determined by the rent of houses and cost of living?

MR. HANBURY

No, it is dependent really on the population of a place. But rents and wages are supposed to be on the same scale.

MR. CHANNING

As the information given me and referred to in the first paragraph is not consistent with the reply, if I send the papers, will they be considered by the Postmaster General?

MR. HANBURY

Yes, certainly.