§ MR. NANNETTI (Dublin, College Green)To ask the Postmaster-General if he will cause an inquiry to be made into the punishment awarded to sorters in the Registered Letter Division, East Central District Office, for errors of duty apart from discipline cases, as compared with the punishment awarded generally to officers in the East Central Sorting Office, to ascertain whether such punishment results from the high pressure at which the registered letter sorters work, owing to inadequate provision of force.
(Answered by Lord Stanley.) The hon. Member is in error in supposing that a case for inquiry is established by the act that a larger proportion of errors deserving punishment appears to exist among the sorters in the Registered Letter Division than in the sorting office of the East Central District. The explanation of the discrepancy is merely that the system under which registered letters are checked from hand to hand 64 brings errors of carelessness to light; while in the sorting office, where ordinary mails are dealt with, similar opportunities of fixing the responsibility for errors do not exist. I am satisfied that the force employed is not inadequate.