§ Captain GILMOURasked the Postmaster-General if his attention has been called to the fact that a large proportion of the suburban postal sorting work, in the case of the Glasgow district offices, is being performed by officers of the postmen's class, including treatment of registered letter correspondence, foreign, colonial, and inland circulation, surcharging, bag and basket opening, and direct working with up-limited and up-special mails; and, seeing that this practice is a direct contravention of Rule 230 of the Head Postmasters Book of Rules and of the assurances given by the late Postmaster-General that there was no intention of any wholesale or substantial transfer of work from sorting clerks to postmen, whether he will consider the advisability of making other arrangements for this postal work?
§ Mr. HERBERT SAMUEL:My attention has been drawn to the matter to which the hon. Member refers, and I have recently given careful consideration to a memorial on the subject. Postmen in the District Offices in Glasgow perform the same class of work as has for years past been allotted 2366W to postmen in District Offices in other towns, that is, they divide the correspondence into a few large divisions, a process called "primary sorting." The only feature special to Glasgow is that some of the correspondence goes direct to the Station instead of to the Head Office. The correspondence sent to the Station, like that sent to the Head Office, is subsequently dealt with by sorting clerks and telegraphists. The above arrangements and the other duties referred to by the hon. Member were authorised by my predecessor, and they are now the subject of enquiry by a committee which I have recently appointed under the chairmanship of the Assistant Postmaster-General.