The Select Committee on Estimates issued last week e Report
dealing with the pay and hours of work of Civil Servants, The result of their inquiries is astonishing. The Civil Service Whitley Council has arranged a working week of thirty-four and three-quarter hours, comprising a working day of six and a quarter hours (nominally seven hours, with three-quarters of an hour interval for luncheon) and a half day on Saturday of three and a half hours. It has been estimated, unofficially, that if this working day were increased by another hour, thirty-five thousand Civil Servants could be dispensed with, and an amount of £7,245,000 saved annually. Surely it is not unreasonable, in view of the country's financial position, to suggest that the hours could be increased still further. Would any honest Government official consider himself used unjustly if he had to work for eight hours a day like any ordinary clerk, especially at a higher salary and under better conditions than non-official men doing similar work can ever hope for ? With an eight- hour day some fifty thousand Civil Servants could be dispensed with, and the burden of the taxpayer lightened, by about ten million pounds.
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