§ Mr. FARRELLasked the Postmaster-General whether he is aware that the improved scales of pay recommended by the Holt Parliamentary Committee to take effect from the 2nd February, 1914, have been granted to all classes of Post Office servants with the exception of the clerical staffs in the engineers' and the surveyors' departments and the clerical assistants in some few other branches, and that these officers are now, therefore, in receipt of materially lower salaries than those which 2082W were considered by the Parliamentary Committee in 1913 to be fair and reasonable remuneration on a pre-war basis; whether he is aware that the surveyors' third-class clerks are still on a scale of pay which was fixed for them over nine years ago, and that a very large number, if not the majority, of these officers are in receipt of no war bonus or other extra emolument; and whether, in view of the effect upon the financial position of these men of the withholding by the Department of the scale of salaries approved for them over three years ago by the Lords of the Treasury, and included in the Parliamentary Estimates for 1914–15, and having regard to the present tendency to grant temporary wages much in excess of the ordinary rate, he will direct the granting immediately of the approved ordinary scales of pay for the officers in question as from the 2nd February, 1914?
§ Mr. ILLINGWORTHUpon the general question raised by the hon. Member I may refer him to the reply given on 10th August last to the hon. Member for the Attercliffe Division. But claims for the application of the scales of pay referred to have been placed before the Conciliation and Arbitration Board for Government employés, and I await their decision.