§ Captain CARR-GOMMasked the President of the Board of Trade whether he is aware of the fact that the permanent weighers in the Surrey Commercial Docks have been unable to obtain the overtime pay and pay for Sunday work granted recently to other transport workers, and have been on several occasions asked by the dock officials to accept compensation leave in lieu of overtime pay, which they refused to agree to; and whether, in view of the fact that these permanent weighers have an average of thirty years' service and are only eleven in number, he will take action in order to meet their case?
Sir A. STANLEYI am informed that the overtime pay and pay for Sunday work to which the hon. and gallant Member refers was granted by the Port of London authority to labourers only. The weighers do not come under the category of "labourers" in the authority's classification of their employés, but are members of the Lower Division Staff who do not receive payment for overtime, but are allowed compensation leave instead. The matter is not one in regard to which the Board of Trade possess any powers.