§ MR. PATRICK O'BRIEN () KilkennyTo ask the Postmaster General, whether he is aware that an order has been issued recently in the Central Telegraph Office, London, withdrawing certain privileges relating to Saturday modifications of duty that have been in existence many years; that the Controller, in his notice to the staff, expressed the hope that the new arrangement would give in the aggregate as much time to the staff as formerly; and that a telegraphist submitted a statement showing he had suffered under the alterations, and was told that if he did not like it he could leave the service; and whether it is intended that a member of the staff submitting a statement concerning the loss of one of his emoluments should be thus treated by his superior officer.
905 (Answered by Mr. Austen Chamberlain.)
Certain extremely irregular arrangements, which have prevailed in the Central Telegraph Office for some time without the knowledge of the Postmaster General, were recently stopped by my directions. I understand that the statement put forward by one of the staff was not a fair representation of the circumstances, and the Controller, after pointing this out to him, observed that if he was still dissatisfied with the conditions of his service he was at liberty to leave. There is nothing palling for my intervention in this matter of discipline at the present stage. There was no question of loss of any proper emolument.