§ MR. SLOAN (Belfast, S.)To ask the Postmaster-General whether it is part of the duty of the Post Office surveyors department to direct and to supervise the arrangement of the duties and the hours of attendance of the indoor officers employed in the various head offices within their districts; is he aware that no alteration in a duty chart so compiled can be permanently effected without the surveyor's consult; if so, whether his attention has been directed to the hour of attendance in the Strabane Pos Office where one duty is spread over a period of fifteen hours daily and com prises a normal attendance of from 2.45 a.m. till 5 a.m., 10 p.m. till noon, and 2.10 p.m. till 5.40 p.m., and that between March and October the officer performing this duty is obliged to perform in addition overtime from 8 p.m. till 10 p.m., and also to that of two other duties comprised within fourteen hours per day and to which the same condition of liability for overtime from 8 p.m. till 10 p.m. is attached; is he aware that a term of these duties extends over four weeks, and that these hours of attendance are effected by a recent revision and what course he proposes taking in relation to them, and also in reference 325 to the surveyor's action in permitting officers giving such attendances to be obliged to perform overtime
(Answered by Mr. Sydney Buxton.) It is part of the duty of the surveyors to supervise the arrangement of the duties and the hours of attendance of the staff employed at head offices within their districts, and no permanent alteration of a duty chart can be made without the surveyors authority. My attention has already been drawn to the hours of attendance in the Strabane Post Office, and to the amount of overtime occasionally being worked there during the absence of officers on sick and annual leave. There has been no need to oblige any officer to perform overtime. A revision of the indoor force at Strabane is under consideration with a view to making full provision for the work.