HC Deb 12 July 1910 vol 19 cc193-4
Mr. NANNETTI

asked the Postmaster-General whether his attention has been called to the fact that a number of uniformed members of the Royal Engineer corps have been drafted into the Post Office telegraph departments in Dublin and Cork and put to work beside male and female telegraphists, and that the staffs at those offices strongly resent this encroachment on their sphere of labour; will he say if the members of the Army service referred to have passed any examination for entrance to the Post Office; on what Department their salaries are borne; and with what object exactly they have been so employed?

Mr. HERBERT SAMUEL

The members of the Royal Enginer Corps to which the hon. Member presumably refers are boy learners from the Royal Engineers, who, in connection with the transfer of K Telegraph Company to Ireland, are now stationed at Irish offices instead as heretofore at offices in the South of England. Their salaries are paid out of Army funds, and they are being trained in telegraphy with a view to their greater efficiency in the branch of the Service to which they are attached.

Mr. NANNETTI

asked the Postmaster-General if he is aware that a number of telegraph messengers are engaged in the Dublin telegraph office on regular telegraph work; will he say why they are so employed, especially in view of the fact that a number of learners who have passed an open competitive examination are fully qualified in telegraph work at that office, are still awaiting appointments on the established list, and are in receipt of a much smaller wage than the messengers referred to; have a number of these messengers failed to pass the limited examination for sorting clerks and telegraphists; and will he, in the interests of discipline, efficiency, and trade union principles of labour, see that the arrangement referred to is withdrawn?

Mr. HERBERT SAMUEL

The boy messengers, to whom the hon. Member refers, are qualified telegraphically, and are being employed as temporary season assistants to meet pressure which recurs at this period of the year. The arrange- ment is in no way detrimental to the interests of the learners, and I see no objection to it on any ground.

Mr. NANNETTI

Are there not several learners who can be appointed to these positions, and is overtime not worked by these learners?

Mr. HERBERT SAMUEL

No; I do not think they can be appointed to these positions, which are merely positions of temporary season assistants.