§ Mr. T. GRIFFITHSasked the Postmaster-General if any official figures are available which show the effect of night-work and irregular hours of attendance on the health of the staff of sorters in the Post Office; and whether, if no published figures are available, he will supply a brief summary giving this information?
§ Mr. KELLAWAYNo official figures are available which can be said to show the effect of night work and irregular hours of attendance on the health of the staff of sorters in the Post Office. Variations in the sick absence rates of course occur, but they are attributable, in the opinion of the Post Office medical advisers, to a variety of causes. In practice the average sick rate of sorters is not found to be substantially greater than that of other classes with more regular hours of attendance. In the Central London district, where over 4,000 sorters are employed, the average number of days of sick absence per sorter for 1921 was 12.4 days; in the Accountant-General's Department and the Savings Bank Department, where large bodies of male clerical staff are employed, the corresponding average sick rates were 9.1 and 9.5 respectively: and the rate for male counter clerks and telegraphists employed in the Central London district, who have no night duty, was 11. Men disabled in the War are excluded from all these figures.