HC Deb 26 October 1966 vol 734 cc996-7
24. Mr. Dean

asked the Postmaster-General whether he has now resumed pay negotiations with organisations representing Post Office staff.

Mr. Short

The detailed application of the Prices and Incomes Standstill to all outstanding reviews of Civil Service pay is currently being considered by the Government and until the general issues of principle have been resolved negotiations cannot usefully proceed beyond the establishment of relevant facts. When they can, we will get ahead as quickly as possible.

Mr. Dean

Is not the claim of the Post Office engineers in particular based on the report of the pay research unit issued as long ago as November, 1965? Was not salary revision long overdue before the pay freeze came into operation? Will the right hon. Gentleman give an assurance that these negotiations will proceed and that new scales will come into operation early next year?

Mr. Short

I have recently discussed this matter with the Executive Committee of the Society of Post Office Engineers and agreed that we conduct negotiations on establishing the facts up to the point where cash is involved, and I have also given an assurance that once the Government have decided the criteria for the next move forward, we will then be prepared to start talking about the actual cash involved in the new award.

Sir Knox Cunningham

Will the right hon. Gentleman take up with the Treasury the matter of some of these telephone operators, because they feel that they have been badly treated and that an award was given some time ago which in fact is not now being paid?

Mr. Short

That is a different question, but the hon. and learned Gentleman and the telephone workers may be assured that their point of view is put by me to the Treasury all the time.