§ MR. NANNETTI (Dublin, College Green)I beg to ask the Postmaster-General if his attention has been called to the fact that junior sorting clerks and telegraphists have been called on to perform supervising duties in the Dublin Sorting Office, and while doing so supervised their seniors; 309 and will he cause an inquiry to be made into this matter with a view to putting a stop to the practice.
§ MR. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAINIt is the practice, not only at Dublin but at all offices, to require sorting clerks and telegraphists to undertake, when necessary, supervising duties as temporary substitutes. In this way opportunities of proving capacity and fitness for promotion are afforded. Occasionally it happens that some of the senior sorting clerks and telegraphists are manifestly unfit for supervising duties, and in such a case it may result that a junior has temporarily to supervise his senior. I do not propose to alter the practice.