Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-06-10
Question as to the Allowance Of Paw
of Street Cleaners
1HE SUPERINTENDENTS STATEMENT
Hours of Labor Vary With Work
of Street Cleaning
d ECIS ION ASKED FOR


of employees in the District government
the District Commissioners by MIR. Warner
Stutler the superintendent of street clean
ing. and referred by them to the controller
of the treasury for opinion. The question
is one of much interest and has been wide
ly discussed in District circles recently. In
his communication Mr. Stutler SAYS:
Il have the honor herewith to submit
statement with reference to the duties of
certain per diem employees of this depart
ment and the labor performed by them to-
gether with the time required each day in
which to complete the work Of the day and
respectfully ask to be advised at an early
date as to what the proper allowance in
pay viii be for the service rendered by
each.
The employees referred to are two inspec-
tors on hand cleaning, work done directly
by the District of Columbia: six inspectors
in charge of city refuse under contract
system: two clerks in the Office I'm charge
of the contract work and one weigh clerk
at the garbage transfer station.
The two inspectors first named have
charge of number of laborers each. whose
day of labor. under the law. is fixed at
eight hours In the absence of rating as
to the time Of service, the pay of the two
Inspectors has been fixed by the hours of
labor specified in the case of the hand
titdnSTS, elSDl nDuTS bellR regarded as a
day for each inspector
I'm the case of the six inspectors re-
ferred to, 1t should be stated that their
duties vary. Each is assigned a GER
tain section of the city, subject, of course,
to transfer, and each supervises the work
done under four different contracts In his
section. In each Of these contracts, the
collection Of garbage and dead animals.
ashes, miscellaneous refuse and night soil.
respectively, it is specified in the contracts
that garbage, miscellaneous refuse and
ashes shall be collected between the hours
OF o'clock in the morning and O'Clock
in the evening, and night soil from & O'Clock
am. to pm. making the hours during
which all work may be done from o'clock
am. TO pm.
Ten to Twelve Hours a Day.
ITO properly supervise this work each
inspector must be on duty at the hour that
the first contractor commences work, which
is 6 o'clock am, and must remain on duty
until the work for the day is completed,
which is governed by the amount of work
to be done during the day and the force
employed. There are DAYS, of course, when
the contractors complete their work earlier
than o'clock, in which case the inspector
is relieved from duty. 1t occasionally hap
pens. though not frequently. that an In
spector has but six hours of service in a
given day, but all are subject to duty until
Il O'Clock in the evening, and more often
than. otherwise are on duty from ten to -
The two office clerks, who, as stated
nave charge of the contract work. are
often obliged by the necessities of the SER
vice to go on duty at O'Clock am. and
remain as late 8 o'clock pm. for the
reason that, under the contract, the Office
must furnish the contractor each morning
and evening lists of dead animals reported
through the police department as having
accumulated since the previous collection,
and also a list of complaints and the re.
quests for special or other service fled with
the office each day. One OF these two
clerks is required to be on duty every day
in the year. including legal holidays, when
he would be entitled to pay, IL not on duty,
and Sundays. The Sunday duties Of this
clerk do not always require the customary
number of hours of service for the reason
that a part of the contract work is sus-
pended on that day, but the full amount Of
work necessary for that day is always per-
formed
The duty of the weigh clerk mentioned
is to weigh all garbage brought by the
contractor to the transfer station and make
daily reports to the office. He is obliged to be
on duty al o'clock am. daily and remain
until the last load of garbage for the day
is delivered. On secular days the last load
is frequently not delivered until @ pm. but
on Sunday owing to the fact that garbage
is only collected from hotels, flats, restau-
rants and boarding houses on that day,
his duties often end as early l o'clock
=. m.
Allowance Made.
-
order of the Commissioners, 1 have allowed
each of the foregoing employees for a fun
day upon the completion of the work re-
quired for that particular day. | deemed
this to be equitable and just since IL the
time each is employed during the year were
computed at the average Of eight hours
per day-what is recognized as A legal work
day for the two inspectors first referred
to-each Inspector, each clerk and the
weigh clerk would be shown to have rem
dered more than the number of days for
which they were paid.
1T is the purpose of this communication
to obtain from the honorable Commission
ers or If in their judgment it is necessary,
from the controller Of the United States
treasury, rating for the future guidance
of the street cleaning department in maxi
ing the allowance of pay to the employees
not on the annual roll
LAS 1t is the desire of this office to
make any corrections that tine honorable
Commissioners may deem necessary prev.-
GUS to closing our accounts for the current
year, 1 would respectfully request an
early response"