§ MR STEADMAN (Finsbury, Central)To ask the Postmaster-General whether he is aware that the general manager of the Post Office London Telephone Service has invited applications for skilled female operators at wages from 11s. to 26s. per week; whether, in addition to a knowledge of telephony, they must be able to receive and send on the Morse telegraph sounder at thirty words per minute; and whether he will explain the departmental action in asking for persons who are skilled telephonists and telegraphists in London to work for a maximum of 29s. weekly, when the wages of skilled women telegraphists are 38s. per week, and a Select Committee of this House is investigating the whole question.
(Answered by Mr. Sydney Buxton.) In the London Trunk Telephone Exchange there is a class of call-wire telephone operators who in addition to performing 1362 duty as ordinary telephone operators, must be able to work the Morse sounder, but are not required to possess full telegraphic qualifications. Their scale of pay is the same as that of the ordinary telephone operators; but in virtue of their telegraph qualifications, their starting pay is fixed at a point above the minimum, according to their age and qualifications. It is to fill vacancies in this class at the authorised rates of pay that applications have been invited, and the question is not therefore affected by the sitting of the Select Committee.