§ MR. WILKIE (Dundee)To ask the Postmaster-General whether the maximum wages of male telegraphists at Dundee, as a result of the departmental interpretation of the Hobhouse award, remains at the figure fixed in 1890; whether the maximum at Edinburgh is 4s. per week higher than at Dundee; whether the recent Board of Trade Returns show that Dundee is the city in Scotland in which the cost of living for the working classes is highest; and whether he will investigate the position of affairs at Dundee.
(Answered by Mr. Sydney Buxton.) In 1890 there were two classes of sorting clerks and telegraphists at Dundee. The first-class had a maximum of 50s., and the second-class a maximum of 40s. The classification of Dundee has been determined on the lines recommended by the the Select Committee on Post Office Servants, that is to say, primarily on volume of work modified where necessary by cost of living. The volume of work at Dundee is represented by about 1,120 units which places it in Class II., the range of which is from 800 to 1,700 units, and as the cost of living is not exceptionally high, it remains in Class II. On the same principle Edinburgh with about 4,780 units of work, and with the cost of living practically the same as in Dundee, remains in Class I.