CHAPTER XV
WORK OF THE FAWCETT SCHEME COMMITTEE—A NOTABLE PAMPHLET—MR. RAIKES AND THE “AGITATOR”—A NEW POSTAL ORGAN—THE FAWCETT SCHEME AND THE “LUMINOUS COMMITTEE.”
The seed had germinated; the plant had taken root even in such seemingly stony and barren soil, and was destined within a short while, despite chill winds and frost-bite, to become flourishing and fruitful.
The newly-constituted Fawcett Scheme Committee set about in real earnest in preparing the further petition which should suitably represent the united claims of the two classes. As the representatives of the first and second classes of sorters, they called attention to the fact that several important provisions of the scheme of reorganisation, recommended by the late Mr. Fawcett when Postmaster-General, and sanctioned by the Treasury in 1881, had not been carried into effect; and on behalf of the sorters, they wished to take such steps as may be in their power to have those provisions effectuated. The improvements of position which had been sanctioned by the Treasury, and which, they submitted, they had been entitled to since April 1, 1881, were comprised in the sanctioned recommendation of Mr. Fawcett to redress the grievances coming under the first two of the five points to which, in his letter to the Treasury, he reduced the whole of the representations and petitions which had been addressed to him by the various classes of the postal and telegraph services, viz.:—
“1. Inadequacy of pay arising to some extent from stagnation in promotion.
“2. The excessive amount of overtime, the small rate of pay allowed for it, and the severity of the night duty. The inadequacy of pay referred to in the first point was redressed by a new classification and scale of wages, which was to be uniform for the postal staff of the Sorting Branch and for the telegraphists (vide Treasury reply), and which was ‘based upon the intelligible principle of paying for work solely according to its quality’ (vide Mr. Fawcett’s report to the Treasury).”
The grievances embodied in the second point were redressed by the recommendation in paragraphs 5 and 6 of Mr. Fawcett’s report, viz.:—
“5. That the period of ordinary night attendance, both for telegraphists and sorting clerks, be reduced from eight to seven hours; already recognised at several offices as the proper amount of night attendance for the postal staff.
“6. That payment as for overtime work at provincial offices, whether of telegraphists or sorting clerks, be, in the case of male officers, at the rate of one-fiftieth part of a week’s pay per hour, and in the case of female officers (who, as a rule, are not called upon to do more than 48 hours’ work per week) at the rate of one-forty-eighth part of a week’s pay. That when the overtime at any given office on a single occasion exceeds three hours, the rate of pay for such excess shall be one-quarter higher than the ordinary rate. As a rule the 16 hours which form an officer’s work for two days shall be so divided as to avoid giving him more than 11 hours’ work on either day; when an occasional exception is necessary, all excess beyond 11 hours in any one day shall be paid for as overtime, although the two days’ work in the aggregate may not exceed 16 hours.”