§ MR. KENDAL O'BRIEN (Tipperary, Mid.)To ask the Postmaster-General, if his attention has been called to the fact that the subordinate employees engaged in His Majesty's Customs, Board of Works, and several departments of the War Office have had their weekly rate of wages increased recently; and will he now state his decision as to the several points raised on behalf of the adult night messengers by the deputation which he received from the Trades Union 53 Congress on February 23rd last, especially with regard to the present weekly rate of wages, which only averages 18s.
§ MR. KENDAL O'BRIENTo ask the Postmaster-General, if he is aware that the increased rate of pay for adult night messengers, under the memorandum issued by Lord Stanley, was to apply to all messengers performing a full night's duty at offices from first to fourth class inclusive, and as Aberdeen and Dundee offices come under this ruling, will he issue instructions that the adult night messengers employed at these offices be paid as from 1st April, 1905, at the same rate as the adult night messengers at Glasgow and Edinburgh.
(Answered by Mr. Sydney Buxton.) I will answer the hon. Member's two Questions together. The duties of adult night messengers are merely those which are performed in the daytime by boy messengers. The memorandum, issued by Lord Stanley in the Post Office Circular of 28th March, 1905, stated that unestablished night telegraph messengers employed full time in provincial towns would be paid the minimum of the scale of pay for established postmen in those towns. At Aberdeen and Dundee town postmen are on a scale beginning at 1s. less than at Glasgow and Edinburgh, and consequently the night messengers are paid wages of 1s. less per week. The duties of the class of men in the Customs service to which the hon. Member refers are far more responsible than those of the night messengers. They are not established officers, and consequently do not earn a pension. But in any case I cannot deal with the question of the remuneration of these officers until the Select Committee on Post Office servants have made their Report, and I have had time to consider their recommendations.