§ Mr. Bingasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury whether he is aware of the concern felt in Gibraltar and Malta at the long delay in settling schemes of establishment for Civil Service clerks employed by the Defence Departments in Gibraltar and Malta, some of whom have been classified under the title of war emergency clerks for upwards of 11 years; and when he will be able to make definite proposals in the matter.
§ Mr. Glenvil HallThe existing agreed scheme for the establishment of locally-recruited clerical staff at Malta and Gibraltar provides that graded clerks may be established after 10 years' service. Clerks who have been engaged since the outbreak of the war and who are properly termed war emergency clerks have less than 10 years' service and are therefore not yet eligible for establishment. The only clerks who have 11 or more years' service and remain unestablished are temporary clerks who have never become graded clerks because they failed to take the examination or for other reasons. Meanwhile the representatives of the staff concerned have asked for modifications of the scheme itself, and negotiations are proceeding.