MR. STAY ELEY-HILL (Staffordshire, Kingswinford)To ask the Postmaster-General whether he aware that the employees in the post office at Dudley 642 receive 12s. a week less than those employed at Birmingham, and that the employees at Dudley are compelled to pass an examination in telegraphy and postal work, which test is not required pf those employed at Birmingham; and whether he will state the reason for the difference in remuneration.
§ MR. STAVELEY-HILLTo ask the Postmaster-General whether he is aware that there are officers in the Dudley post office with thirty years service who are receiving 44s. per week, while those similarly employed at Birmingham, with a less amount of service, are receiving 56s. per week; and whether he can state the reason for this difference.
(Answered by Mr. Sydney Buxton.) I will answer the two Questions together. Under the recommendation of the Select Committee on Post Office Servants the new classification of towns in respect of scales of pay is to be based primarily on the volume of work modified where necessary by the cost of living. The unit of work at Birmingham is 7,400, which places it in Class I. The index number of the cost of living at Birmingham, as ascertained by the Board of Trade, is 96. The unit of work at Dudley is only 168, and the index number of the cost of living 90, the average being 100. Sorting clerks and telegraphists at all provincial offices are liable to be employed on sorting or telegraph work as the exigencies of the service may require; but at the large offices, though the work is more trying, the conditions are nearly always such that officers are, in practice, employed exclusively on sorting or telegraph duties, as the case may be, and it is not, therefore, necessary to train them all fully on both classes of work.