§ MR JAMES O'CONNOR (Wicklow, W.)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster-General, why the recommendation of the Tweedmouth Committee that an officer performing split duties should, during each twenty-four hours, enjoy nine clear unbroken hours at his own home, exclusive of a reasonable time for the journey from his own house to the office and from the office to his own house, is not being given effect to in the Parcel Post Department at Glasgow, where a sorting clerk is being called upon to perform a duty extending over a period of almost fifteen hours, viz., from 5.40 a.m. till 10.10 a.m. and 5 p.m. till 8.30 p.m.; and whether such steps will be taken as will result in the grievance complained of being removed.
§ THE FINANCIAL SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY (Mr. HANBURY,) PrestonThe duty to which the hon. Member refers, and which is correctly described, was temporarily arranged for one week only, in order to admit of other officers being afforded absence on leave. It allowed an interval of nine hours and ten minutes off duty, but the officer who undertook it happens to live at some distance from the office, and his interval of rest at home, therefore, was about thirty minutes less than the usual period of nine hours As the arrangement was only a temporary one, and the officer concerned before commencing the duty expressed himself as satisfied with it, the Postmaster-General does not consider it necessary to take any further steps in the matter.