§ MR. NUTTALL (Lancashire, Stratford)To ask the Postmaster-General whether all grades of the staffs of the telephone systems recently acquired by the Government from the corporations of Glasgow and Brighton have been placed in the same grades as they occupied when they were in the employment of those corporations; whether their wages have been increased, decreased, or continued at the same rates; whether they have been placed on the established strength of the Department; and whether their services with the corporations as licensees of the Department will be reckoned as services with the Post Office for pension purposes.
(Answered by Mr. Sydney Buxton.) The corporation telephone staffs at Glasgow and Brighton are being taken over on the terms and conditions and at the rates of pay which they enjoyed in the service of the corporations. The regular increments of wages to which they were entitled have been allowed. The question of placing on the establishment those classes which are usually established in the service of the department and giving them a prospect of pension will be considered in due course, but I may say at once that the counting towards Civil Service pension of their service with the the corporation is not contemplated.