The Telephone Company's Employees— Conditions of Transfer to Government Service.

HC Deb 26 February 1906 vol 152 cc786-7

MR. W. T. WILSON (Lancashire, Westhoughton)

I beg to ask the Postmaster-General whether he can state when the Bill is to be introduced which was promised by his predecessor in the last Government to give effect to the recommendations of the Telephone Transfer Committee anent the conditions under which the employees of the present Telephone Company are to be transferred to the service of the Post Office?

THE POSTMASTER-GENERAL (Mr. SYDNEY BUXTON) Tower Hamlets, Poplar

As the staff of the National Telephone Company will not be taken over by the Post Office until the 1st January, 1912, it is not intended to introduce the necessary Bill at present or until the conditions of the transfer of the Company's system, which will require statutory authority, can be more exactly foreseen than at present.

MR. KEIR HARDIE (Merthyr Tydvil)

Is it intended to introduce any Bill embodying these conditions?

MR. SYDNEY BUXTON

I take it it will be necessary to bring in a Bill before 1912 on which this question can be raised.