Postmen's Pay In Rushden

Most men have their batch of grievances, but, while some unquestionably are of a very real and substantial character, others exist only in the realm of fancy and imagination. To the class of real grievances belong those of the postmen of Rushden, who have sought remedy through the usual channels and failed. Consequently they brought their complaints before the Member for East Northants, and on Friday night last Mr. Channing, in the House of Commons, asked the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, the following questions:—

(1) Whether the attention of the Department has been drawn to the fact that the postal staff at Rushden have not received the full rise of 1s. 6d. guaranteed to them in pursuance of the recommendations of the Tweedmouth Commission, but have owing to the change of date of year from 23rd February to 1st April been assigned 6d. a week less than the increased wage thus guaranteed?

(2) Whether the maximum pay at Rushden is 22s. per week, while at Wellingborough the maximum pay for the same class is 24s. per week, although the rent of houses and cost of living is equally high at Rushden?

(3) Whether, in the case of the auxiliary postmen employed for Sunday duty, the increase of pay assigned to them for this Sunday duty is being deducted from their ordinary pay for their weekday work; and whether steps will be taken by the Postmaster General to remove these grounds of complaint?

The reply of the Secretary to the Treasury was to the effect that the wages of two postmen at Rushden sub-office appear to have been adjusted on the 1st April, 1897, like those of other postmen, to give them the benefit to which they were entitled under the Tweedmouth Committee Scheme, and on the 1st April, 1898, they received the full increment of 1s. 6d. a week each. It is true that the maximum of their scale is 2s. less than that assigned to the postmen at Wellingborough, the head office of Rushden, and this is also in accordance with the usual practice. As regards the auxiliaries, it was found in carrying out the revision that three of them were being paid somewhat in excess of the proper scale, and no further sum became due to them in respect of their Sunday duty, because the wages already included Sunday pay as calculated at the higher rate.

Upon receiving this answer Mr. Channing inquired whether the maximum scale was not based on the rents and cost of living, to which the Secretary to the Treasury replied that it was based on population. Further, Mr. Channing was informed that if he sent the papers in his possession to the Postmaster General they would be considered.

In brief, the grievance of the Rushden postmen is that while the Tweedmouth Commission gave them an annual rise of 1s. 6d. per week from the 1st of April, 1897, they did not get it until the same date in 1898. As regards the second part of the question, the postmen appear to be entitled to a maximum of 24s. or 22s., according to the mere accident as to whether the starting point for their duty is a head or sub-office. In respect to the auxiliary postmen it will be news to them that their 9s. or 10s. per week was in excess of the proper scale. What they do know is that where the pay received was 9s. per week, including about three hours' duty every alternate Sunday, the pay is now only 8s. 1d. per week, with an additional 1s. 10d. once a fortnight for the Sunday work. The week-day pay of these men, who are not employed full-time, and who are men grown, not boys, is 3¾d. per hour. But then the Postal Department has to make its high profits out of somebody or other.

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