§ Mr. JOWETTasked the Secretary to the Treasury whether he is aware that the average annual salary payable to a clerk of the second division, promoted in the year 1902 from the rank of assistant clerk, in respect of his first twenty-three years of established service (six and a half years as assistant clerk and sixteen and a half years as second division clerk) is £112; and, in view of the fact that the average annual salary of an assistant clerk, who enters the service at the initial salary of £55, in respect of the same period is £114, will he consider the desirability of securing that a clerk promoted to the second division on the ground of special merit and ability shall be more adequately rewarded for his services as a second division clerk?
§ Mr. MASTERMANThe figures in the question do not appear to be quite accurate, and in any case the comparison made in the question is between an assistant clerk appointed in 1896, and promoted in 1902 to the second division, and an assistant clerk appointed on the rates of pay now current. I am satisfied that the improvement of pay and prospects gained by an assistant clerk on promotion to be a second division clerk is substantial.
Mr. POINTERasked the Secretary to the Treasury, under what circumstances were fifty appointments made to the third class clerk (supplementary) establishment during 1909–10; were any above the age of twenty-six years; and were they superior to the candidates who sat for the competitive examination in March, 1909, and took places ranging from eleven to sixty?
§ Mr. HERBERT SAMUELThe circumstances of the case referred to were quite1270W exceptional. A large body of unestablished clerks were employed in the early days of the London Telephone Service, as it was uncertain on what lines the development of that service would proceed. When the organisation assumed a settled form, these clerks were appointed to the establishment, and as they had proved their fitness for the duties of third class clerks by the performance of those duties for several years, the ordinary age limit of twenty-six was waived in their case. They were considered to have a stronger claim than the candidates from other branches of the Post Office who sat for the competitive examination in March, 1909.
§ Mr. CAVEasked the Secretary to the Treasury whether a member of the Civil Service who considers himself aggrieved by the decision of the permanent head of his department has any appeal except to the Parliamentary chief of the department, who may have little or no present knowledge of the character and ability of individual members of the office staff?
§ Mr. MASTERMANI am not aware of any appeal from the decision of the responsible Minister in such a case.
§ Mr. BURGOYNEasked the Secretary to the Treasury, under what authority the Superannuation Act, 1887, has been used to pension compulsorily with out compensation a Civil servant, Mr. H. W. Cardew, of the General Post Office, appointed before the passing of that Act, and subject him to the indignity of being certified to Parliament as unable to do his duty, in view of Section 10 of the Act, which provides that nothing in the Act shall be so construed so as in any way to interfere with the rights existing at the passing of this Act of any Civil servant then holding office, and that the Secretary to the Treasury stated in the House of Commons on the 9th September, 1887, that the Government accepted the addition of this clause to the Bill with the object of securing to existing Civil servants the rights which they at present possess, and remarked that the clause was simply intended to carry out an undertaking which the Government considered themselves bound to give?
§ Mr. MASTERMANMr. Cardew has been removed from his office by the Postmaster-General on the ground of his inability to discharge efficiently the duties thereof. Section 2 of the Superannuation Act, 1887, has no bearing upon the 1271W power of the head of a department to remove an officer, but merely confers upon the Treasury the power to grant a pension to a Civil servant who has been removed from his office. But for that Section, no pension could have been granted to Mr. Cardew.