Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1922-03-01
HOUSE ENDS EVIL ..
IN RETIREMENT ACT
Adopts LehIbach Bill Correct
ing Two "Misconceptions"
of Law.

The House late yesterday passed a
bill fathered by Representative Lehl-
bach of New Jersey, chairman Of the
committee on reform in the civil
service, correcting some injustices
done to federal employees under adj
ministrative misconception of the
purposes Of the civil service retire.
ment act. This measure now goes
Chairman Lehlbach explained that
this bill is to clarity and to provide
for the details of administration of
the civil service retirement act in
certain particulars. 1T. does not in
any way alter the basic terms of
the act or amend it In any particular.
but in two points it makes clear the
intent of Congress when it passed
the original law and directs its APP
plication in administration of the
act" he said.
In explaining the two ways in
which injustice has been done to
veteran government employees Chair
man LelIlbach said:
Dismissal Unattended.
has ruled that all employees to whom
this act applies" shall mean all those
employees in the classes to whom this
retirement act applies who shall
have reached the age of seventy. or
sixty-five or sixty-two in certain
pss'ieu la CLASSES and that they
whether they have served fifteen
years in the service or not. or
whether they shall be entitled under
the terms of this act to an annuity
or not. This was manifestly not the
intention of the trainers and not the
intention of Congress when 1t passed
orf Intention
to procure the dismissal from the
service of any employee. Adequate
opportunity for dismissing employees
for cause exists, and is not in any
way lessened by the retirement law,
but this section of the law provides
for the dismissal, without annuity.
from the service of employees against
whom no fault is found. under the
construction placed upon it by the
controller of the Treasury.
when the retirement law went into
effect and the employees were retired
thereunder-some of them by refusal
Of certificate for continuation in the
service and some who were retired
without any protest on their part-tt
was found that In certain instances
their services were desirable. either
when the work piled up in the de-
partment or Offices in which they had
previously been employed, or because
of lack of experienced substitutes. SO.
in some instances these people were
continued after the age of retirement
was reached, and in other instances
they were re-employed. After this
state of affairs had continued for a
while. a ruling by the Treasury was
made that it was ILLEGAL to continue
in the service those who under the
terms of the retirement law were to
be separated and that it was equally
illegal to re-employ them. and not:
withstanding the fact that they had
actually performed the work for
which they were re-employed or con-
tinued in employment, they could not
be paid the salaries.
"The Treasury further ruled that
If a man had received the wages for
which he worked and which the
Treasury said were illegally paid to
employed, that money should be
recovered back to the Treasury by
suspending the payments of the an
nufties to which he was entitled until
the illegal payments have been made
up"
In explaining the attitude of the
committee in declining to attempt to