Mr. T. WILSONasked the President of the Board of Trade if he is aware that the practice of not paying junior female clerks for overtime:, except in special circumstances, obtains not only in the smaller but in the larger Labour Exchanges in London, where the supervision is adequate, and that it is frequently impossible to allow a corresponding time off (although nil overtime returns may be submitted to the Board, which thus obtains a false idea of the state of the work); and whether he will arrange that managers may authorise the payment of overtime to junior clerks when necessary, even for ordinary current work?
Mr. RUNCIMANThe system described in my reply of 15th July applies to all the offices of the Labour Exchanges and Unemployment Insurance Department other than the Central Office. Every effort is made to allow compensatory time off, but 1505W this is not always possible, in view of the needs of the public service. The instructions with regard to returns of overtime require all overtime to be reported, whether payable or not, and I have no reason to suppose that these are not accurate. It would not be in accordance with the Treasury requirements to delegate to managers the power to sanction payment for overtime.