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Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 11 Dec 1968

Vol. 237 No. 14

Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Postmen's Overtime.

30.

asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs if he will make arrangements so that postmen delivering Christmas mail will be paid for the actual overtime worked and not for a specific time laid down by his Department beforehand.

Payment is made to postmen for all overtime necessarily performed in handling the Christmas post.

Surely the Parliamentary Secretary is aware that the usual arrangement is that somebody inside the GPO or the local main post office fixes the time he thinks it should take to do a certain delivery and that the temporary postmen do not get paid for the work they do but for the time somebody thinks they should have worked? Is this not the only instance in State employment in which somebody is not paid for the hours they have worked?

I can see the point the Deputy is making but, on the other hand, the Deputy will appreciate that if I were to make arrangements to do what is being asked for in this question it would mean that we would be undertaking to pay the postman until such time as he would feel like coming back. Though I am satisfied that a great percentage of them would act in an honourable way in that respect, we must concede that advantage would be taken of it by some.

Is this the old system of collective punishment because somebody might possibly do something wrong? I know what I am talking about.

So do I.

Is the Parliamentary Secretary not aware that this affects the whole country? Is he not aware that postmen going out must deliver letters, that they are not entitled to take them back to the post office? Is he not further aware that they work much longer hours than they get paid for?

The Deputy will have to appreciate that even in the case of the ordinary postmen working on normal routes, there is a working out, through tests, of the length of time it will take them and that that is generally accepted. We know there is an increased volume of work at Christmas but there is an overall formula which can cover this matter. If extra time is worked and if it can be verified, it is paid for by way of overtime.

Is the Parliamentary Secretary not aware that the Post Office Workers Union have been complaining bitterly about this during a number of years and that after Christmas every year a high volume of complaints come from people working during the Christmas, some of whom have been paid for only three-quarters of the time they spent working? Does he not appreciate that unless something is done about it, the people concerned, being temporary, will simply return the mail to the post office and tell the post office to go to hell? Should it not be rectified immediately?

We are not speaking specifically about temporary people. The union referred to by the Deputy have been looking for increased overtime pay for men working in the winter. The Deputy is stressing part-time employees.

There are both temporary staff and permanent staff.

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