§ Mr. HOHLERasked the first Lord of the Admiralty whether he is aware that the fitters employed at the Royal Ordnance Depot, Chatham, are in receipt of wages varying from 36s. to 40s. a week, whilst the fitters on gun work at Messrs. Vickers, Sons, and Maxim, at Erith, receive 40s. ed. to 45s. a week; at the Royal Gun Factory, Woolwich, where piece-work is in vogue, men earn 50s. a week, special work being paid for at special rates, men on tool, jig, and gauge work receiving from 42s. to 47s. a week, and gun examiners under the Chief Inspector, Woolwich, receive from 44s. to 56s. a week, whereas at Chatham only ordinary rates are paid for similar work; whether he is aware that the higher rates at Chatham are not filled as they become vacant, and that a recommendation to increase the rates of pay of certain fitters employed as above from 36s. to 38s. a week was refused; and whether he will direct that the higher rates be filled, that the increases in the rates of pay which have been refused be granted, that steps be taken to increase the minimum rates of pay to 40s. a week, or something done to bring the rates of pay at Chatham into conformity with the rates paid for similar work at the places mentioned, or state his reason for refusing the above requests?
§ Mr. McKENNAThe normal scale of pay for fitters in naval ordnance depots is the same as that in the dockyards—namely, 36s. to 40s. per week, but in the Naval Ordnance Department advances from the minimum to the maximum are made on special recommendation by increments of 2s. at intervals of not less than three years. There is no fixed number of men at any particular rate, so that vacancies in the higher rates cannot be said to exist. No reason is seen for changing this scale of pay at present, in view of the nature of work upon which the men are employed. In the two cases in which increases to 38s. a week were refused in the current year, the men had served less than three years since the last increment.
§ Mr. HOHLERMay I say: if so, on what ground the recommendation was made that there should be no increase in pay?
§ Mr. McKENNAIncreases are only given at the expiration of a period of three years from the last increase. The two men in question did not serve for three years since their last increment.