§ MR. STEADMAN (Finsbury, Central)To ask the Postmaster-General whether he is aware that at the general factory, Mount Pleasant, the wood-working machinery in D Block is done almost exclusively by boys and unskilled labour, notwithstanding the fact that the class of machinery is recognised as amongst the most dangerous used in ordinary manufacturing work; also is he aware that the men and boys engaged on this work have recently been put on night shift without being paid the usual overtime rate for night work, a small allowance only being made to each employee to cover extra expenses incurred by night work; and whether, to prevent similar occurrences in future and secure smooth working, he will give orders that the conditions of labour and payment as laid down by the trade union shall be observed in the factories department of the Post Office.
(Answered by Mr. Sydney Buxton.) The hon. Member has been misinformed. 1296 All the machines which are in any way dangerous or complicated are worked by skilled wood machinists on full rates of pay. Certain simple machines, in connection with which the risk is of the remotest kind, are, it is true, worked by youths whose ages range from twenty-one to sixteen. Unskilled labour is only used in fetching and carrying. Men engaged in the daytime are not employed on the night shift. There is, therefore, no question of overtime, and the allowance made to the men who work at night is, I understand, very considerably above that provided for by the rules of the Carpenters' Trade Union.