§ MR. SHACKLETON (Lancashire, Clitheroe)To ask the Postmaster-General whether he is aware that it is the practice in Dundee Telegraph Office to give a number of the operators a duty of six hours on Saturdays: that the Department claim the right as a consequence to bring in these telegraphists on other days, and compel them to work a period sufficiently long that the aggregate of forty-eight hours per week may be compiled before permitting payment for overtime; that on the night of the introduction of the Budget thirty-three telegraphists were listed for overtime, 1028 although only twelve were required; that the men whose duties were listed five or six hours on the Saturday were detained to the fullest possible extent, while the others were sent off duty; and whether, seeing that the day in question was a public hoi day in the city, and that the promise that in cases of this kind to undue hardship should be inflicted was not fulfilled, and in view of the fact that the Tweedy-mouth Committee ruled that all time in excess of sixteen hours in two days should be paid for as overtime, he will inquire into the whole of the circumstances.
(Answered by Lord Stanley.) I am inquiring into the circumstances and I will communicate with the hon. Member. I may at once point out, however, that the Tweedy-mouth Committee did not recommend that time in excess of sixteen hours within forty-eight hours should be paid for as overtime, but that it should be counted as time and a-quarter in calculating the total attendance for the week.