§ CAPTAIN NORTON (Newington, W.)To ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, whether the Postmaster General has had under consideration the case of Mr. Stanton, a sorter employed at the Paddington District Office, who claimed the allowance for performing a superior duty, granted as a result of the Norfolk-Hanbury Conference; and, seeing that this officer's annual leave has been deducted from the time he served on a superior duty in order to reduce it below the length of time necessary to enable him to claim the allowance, that the Postmaster General has declared that annual leave does not break the continuity of service upon a superior duty, and that Mr. Stanton has fulfilled the 914 conditions laid down by the Norfolk-Hanbury Conference, whether he will see that this officer is paid the amount due to him.
(Answer.) The case was carefully considered by the Postmaster General, and he regrets that he is unable to alter his decision that Mr. Stanton is not entitled to additional pay for the period. His decision was communicated in the following terms:—
In the case of an officer employed as substitute on superior duties the period during which the officer is absent from official duty on annual leave is not reckoned as a break when calculating the period of his performance of a superior duty provided he performed the duty before and after the absence. He must, however, actually perform a superior duty for nine months exclusive of such absence before he becomes entitled to any allowance.Mr. Stanton's case did not comply with these conditions, and he cannot therefore be given any allowance.—(Post Office.)