§ Mr. W. J. Brownasked the Secretary of State for War if he is aware that substantial numbers of redundancy discharges are taking place amongst locally entered civilian non-industrial employees of his Department in Palestine at the same time as the staffs remaining are being compelled to work six hours overtime per week; and whether he will instruct the Palestine military authorities to revert to the normal peacetime working week, as laid down in staff regulations, before further redundancy discharges are made, 955W especially as the hours worked in R.A.F. and R.N. establishments and by the staffs of the Palestine Government have been reduced to pre-war standards.
§ Mr. LawsonI am aware that about 90 clerks and seven typists were discharged as redundant between May last and the end of September. I am anxious to reduce the number of discharges of civilian non-industrial employees as far as is compatible with the reduction in the volume of work, and the possibility of restoring the normal working week is under consideration.