§ Captain THORPEasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury whether, seeing that lower clerical work throughout the service is now standardised within strictly defined limits, he can state why an official regrading scheme of one of the departments of the Post Office suggests that the male clerical officers shall have a proportion of 1 in 5 higher to lower clerical posts, and the women clerical officers 1 in 24?
§ Mr. KELLAWAYI have been asked to answer this question, which presumably refers to the Post Office Savings Bank. The difference in the proportion of higher posts is due to differences in the nature of the work performed in the branches staffed by men and women respectively. The women perform the bulk of the straightforward accounting work, which requires a smaller proportion of supervising force than does the more complicated work done in most of the branches staffed by men.