§ 50. Mr. WATTasked whether the clerks of the scrivenery department of the Royal Courts of Justice are all called by the Treasury temporary clerks and are therefore given no pension rights; whether one of the clerks there employed has been for sixty-five years a temporary clerk; whether six clerks there employed have been temporary clerks for forty years and another fourteen for over twenty years, while only eleven have been under ten years in that department; and whether, in these circumstances, any legislation will be introduced to give permanent clerkships to that department?
§ Mr. MASTERMANI am not aware that the Treasury has described the writers in the scrivenery department as temporary in the sense that their employment is necessarily or usually for short periods only. As the hon. Member states, many of the writers have been employed for many years. This fact does not, however, constitute sufficient reason for changing the status of the writers to that of Civil servants with pension rights, and I can bold out no hope of legislation with that object.
§ 71. Mr. WATTasked the Secretary to the Treasury whether his Department paid the employés in the scrivenery department of the Royal Courts of Justice wages for the holidays granted to them on the occasions of the King's Coronation and birthday; and, if so, how was the figure paid to each individual arrived at, seeing that they are paid entirely on piecework and their earnings vary so much from month to month?
§ Mr. MASTERMANNo payment is made in respect of holidays taken on the occasion of the King's birthday. On the occasion of the Coronation, as a special concession, an allowance was made to the writers of pay for 22nd, 23rd, and 24th 383 June, pay for the 22nd and 23rd being calculated on the average daily earnings of each writer during the previous week, and for the 24th on the average earnings of each writer for the six preceding Saturdays.