§ Mr. BRACEasked the President of the Board of Trade if the clerks engaged at Cardiff and throughout Britain to do the work under the National Insurance and Labour Exchanges Acts were given a salary of only £60 per year; if, in the introductory work connected with these Acts, they have been called upon to work very long hours and overtime practically from June to December, 1912, and for such overtime they have only received remuneration for the months of June and July; is it his intention to pay for the overtime worked; if not, will he say why this is not to be done; have appointments been recently made in connection with these Acts at salaries ranging from £65 to £110 per annum; and have these higher-salaried appointments been given to persons outside the original staff of clerks, who have had to instruct those later-appointed, higher-paid clerks as to their duties?
Mr. ROBERTSONThe male clerks in the Labour Exchanges and Unemployment Insurance service are on a scale of salary rising by increments of £5 from £60 to £150. Applicants may, however, 995W on grounds of experience and age, be appointed slightly above the minimum, while a certain proportion of appointments have been made in the middle of the scale at £110 on the recommendation of the Civil Service Commissioners. Labour Exchange clerks are not entitled by the terms of their appointment to payment for overtime. In connection, however, with the preliminary administration of unemployment insurance, a considerable amount of overtime has been necessary during the last six months in the Divisional Offices, and during January in the Labour Exchanges. Gratuities have been paid in respect of the overtime worked in June and July, both in the Divisional Offices and in the Labour Exchanges, and it is proposed to pay further gratuities to clerks employed in the former in respect of overtime worked between the end of July and the end of January, and to clerks employed in the Labour Exchanges for overtime worked during the present month.