MR. PATRICK O'BRIENI beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, whether, seeing that the Tweedmouth Committee recommended that, in the case of London and provincial town postmen, 703 no period of duty necessitating an attendance at the office should be reckoned at less than an hour, such principle is in effect applied to the class of sorting clerks; and, if so, would he state the minimum period of attendance relative thereto.
§ MR. HANBURYIt is the case that the Tweedmouth Committee made the recommendation described by the hon. Member as to postmen; and the authority of the Treasury has recently been given to apply the same principle to the class of sorting clerks and telegraphists. The rule now is that in the case of sorting clerks, sorters, telegraphists, and postmen no separate attendance shall be reckoned at less than an hour, except when the attendance falls within an hour of the preceding or succeeding continuous duty. In such a case only the actual time of attendance and the interval between the two attendances will be counted.