§ SIR ALBERT ROLLIT (Islington, S)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, whether he is aware that junior clerks at the Central Telegraph Office are still compelled to take their holidays during the winter months; and whether he has considered the matter, as promised in the Post Office Circular of 10th August, 1897, with a view to an improvement of the system, and with what result?
§ THE SECRETARY TO THE TREASURYIt is the fact that the junior telegraphists at the Central Telegraph Office have to select their periods of annual leave after those who are senior to them, and are, consequently, compelled to take their leave in the least favourable months of the year. The Postmaster General has considered the matter, as promised in the Circular, and is at the present time making an experimental trial in some large provincial offices of another system which, if it succeeds, must enable the staff at those offices to take their leave in the better months of the year, and which could then be extended to London. The Postmaster General hopes also that, as soon as the postal and telegraph staff are trained to do both postal and telegraph duties—and new entrants are being so trained—it will make it more easy to secure to the junior telegraph staff a larger amount of summer leave. It must be remembered, however, that the fact that the telegraphic work of the country is much heavier in the summer than in the winter months, makes all reform of 231 this character very difficult to effect without causing inconvenience to the public service.