Evening star., 1920-01-19
ENDS SPECIFYING
|. OF J. s. EMPLOYEES
Commission Approves Final
Specifications Affecting
100000 Workers.

The Joint congressional comm ission
on reclassification of salaries in the
District today completed its work on
the class specifications of the 107. 200
employees Of Uncle Sam who come
under the jurisdiction of the commits
sion.
Reclassification commissioners put
their O. X. on the final specification
or the LOO drawn up to cover the
classes of jobs or positions into
which the employees of Uncle Sam in
the National Capital will be placed.
PASSES One of Mile Posts.
Thus one of the mile posts in the
work Of the commission came to a
close. completing the scientific basis
of the entire reclassification. the
great groundwork on which new sal
ary schedules are being built up.
Completion Of the specification
work marks a great day for federal
employees, for 1t practically means
that for the first time In the history
of the federal government a system
of absolute merit promotions is pro-
vided for. and that the track has been
laid for slides to success by hundreds
of government workers who in the
past have felt that they had no
chance for promotion.
Description of Positions.
class specification is in reality
the description of a class Of positions
or jobs. Thus for instance, an under
clerk" in the miscellaneous clerical
service gets a class specification, one
of the LOO. as follows:
"Title-Under clerk.
"Duties-Under immediate super
vision, to perform the simplest rou-
tine clerical work of a general mis-
cellaneous nature as required. Exam
pie: Opening and stamping mail, dis
tri n
delivering supplies. addressing and
stuffing envelopes, operating number
ing and dating machines, rubber
stamping papers and documents. an
swering telephone calls, performing
simple work in connection with sort
ing money orders or papers.
qualifications Common school
education; clerical aptitude.
Suggested lines of promotion
From: Junior messenger to Junior
clerk
The above specification is a sample
and is taken from the miscellaneous
clerical specifications AS submitted to
the clerks at their hearing. These par
ticular employees, as had all others in
the government. had ample oppor-
tunity to register protests against the
class specifications.
System Is Elaborate.
An elaborate system was adhered to
drawing UP it's class specifications
They were first drawn up by classi-
fier, then submitted to the employees
concerned at a hearing.
AT the hearing the employees gave
their own ideas as to what the title,
duties. qualifications and lines of pro-
motions of their own jobs should be-
These criticisms were carefully noted
and turned back to the classifier. The
classif1er then made decisions, and
either upheld his own former writing
or accepted the suggestions made by
the employees, or drew up modifica-
tion of the original specification.
Each classifier was then called upon
to submit to the reclassification COM
missioners specifications anew. with
full reasons given for the final writ
ing. Then the reclassifcation commits
sioners passed finally upon the speci-
fication 1t was these final passings
by the reclassification commissioners
themselves which came to an end to-
day.