§ MR. J. P. NANNETTI (Dublin, College Green)To ask the Postmaster-General whether outdoor docket telegraph messengers employed in the General Post Office, Dublin, work eight hours per day (forty-eight hours per week), the same number of hours as sorters, telegraphists, 676 brevity. The higher officials are mainly engaged in administrative work, the preservation, arrangement, and development of the collections, indexing and cataloguing, and the preparation of publications, whilst the members of the lower grades act as attendants and messengers. The approximate cost of these departments in the last completed year (1906–7) was—
§ and postmen, and are paid at the rate of 8d. per dozen messages (which is piece work) and on the seventh day of the week, when they are on Sunday duty, they are paid at overtime rate, which is less than l ¼d. per hour; whether those lads work in three batches on Sundays, and are paid at the following rate, namely: 1st batch, four hours, 5d.; 2nd batch, five hours, 6d.; 3rd batch, eight hours, 9d.; and whether, in view of his previous statements that outdoor docket telegraph messengers receive no payment for Sunday attendances not exceeding eight hours in four weeks, and in view of the character of this payment, he will recommend a higher rate for those boys when employed on Sunday duties.
§ (Answered by Mr. Sydney Buxton.) I will have an inquiry made upon the subject and will acquaint the hon. Member with the result.