asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs (a) the total number of persons employed by his Department; (b) the number of such persons who are currently involved in the industrial dispute; (c) the numbers of employees of his Department, at the latest date for which figures are available, who were employed in his Department on a temporary basis, and the percentage they form of the total workforce of his Department; (d) the levels and grades within his Department within which people may be and are hired on a temporary basis with an estimate or actual total of the numbers of such temporary employees in each grade; and (e) the average length of service of a temporary employee in his Department, and the length of employment of the longest-serving such employee.
Written Answers. - Department of Posts and Telegraphs Employees.
(a) My Department employs approximately 25,500 persons directly, together with 2,100 scale payment postmasters. (b) There are approximately 13,300 staff in the 25 grades represented by the Post Office Workers' Union. The number involved in the dispute varies. (c) 170; 0.6 per cent. (d) The figures at 31.12.1978 were: Postmen and Auxiliary Postmen, 69; Cleaners, 3; Labourers, 98. (e) Information on the length of service of temporary employees is not readily available. In general, however, the length of service ranges from one week to one year.
Note:
The particulars at (c), (d) and (e) do not include staff who, on completion of a specified minimum period of employment, become eligible for quasi-permanent appointment.