§ MR SHACKLETON (Lancashire, Clitheroe)To ask the Postmaster-General whether, seeing that the carpenters and joiners obtaining employment at the Post Office telegraph and telephone factory, Mount Pleasant, Clerkenwell, after serving one month probationary period, passing a satisfactory medical examination, and being vaccinated in accordance with the requirements of the establishment, are required as an absolute condition of further employment to execute the work at prices which they have no voice in arranging on what is known as the piece-work system, he will take steps to bring the conditions of labour for joiners in this factory into harmony with that of private employers who pay by the hour, and so enable trade unionists to participate in this Government work without violating the local rides of the district and the general rules of their respective societies.
(Answered by Lord Stanley.) I am not prepared to abandon the piece-work system in the Post Office factory.