§ Colonel J. WARDasked the First Lord of the Admiralty what is the position of the established workmen under the proposal for shortening time in His Majesty's dockyards, and will the salaried officers be affected in the same manner as the ordinary workmen?
§ Dr. MACNAMARAWith regard to the first part of my hon. and gallant Friend's question, the established workman is in the same position as the unestablished workman. With regard to the latter part of the question, the case of salaried officers is being separately considered. I may, however, observe that short time has been proposed as an expedient to obviate discharges of workpeople. So far as the office staff is concerned, it is, for the time being, still intended to meet reduction of work by means of reduction of staff. As regards the clerical staff, it may be that the short-time system will not mean any reduction in their duties. In that case, if the members are called upon to work full time they will be paid full time. The same will probably be found to be true of members of the directing staff generally, whose responsibilities are far from being confined1154W to a fixed number of hours per day, and who one and all have, so far as I know, never looked to put a fixed limit to their hours of work.