Evening star., 1923-09-07

bers of the Department of Justice
! who are solely engaged in legal work
! in the Department of Commerce. This
| classification results in reduction
| of the present salary of some of the
! employees of that office after July /,
| 1924.
The committee, also heard COM
plants from numerous attorneys in
the general land office of the Depart
ment of the Interior.
Others Seek Professional Grade.
Representatives of the land and con-
| tract division of the reclamation service
appeared before the committee and
their claim for ALLEGATION in the pro-
fessoinal grade instead of in the cleri-
cal. administrative and fiscal grades, in
which they had been placed by the per-
sonnel classification board.
Statements Were made before the COM
mlttee with respect to conditions in the
civilian legal service of the War De-
partment.
Results of Hearings Outlined.
The general observations, as a result
of the hearings, are:
The committee is impressed by the
TACT that the departmental personnel
classification boards apparently have
made the following errors:
u. Persons doing legal work which
requires legal training or equivalent ex-
perience have been arbitrarily classified
III the clerical, administrative and fis-
cal grades.
so. Attorneys who are doing legal
work OF highly responsible nature and
who are engaged in supervising the
work of subordinates have been placed
in the lower professional grades instead
OF being given the ALLEGATION which the
reclaSSitication act contemplated that
they should receive.
"3. Classification has evidently
been made very largely on the basis
OF salaries at present received by
employees, and not on the basis of
the work performed i'll the positions
occupied by the employees, as required
by the act.
a. The proper classification Of
government employees in the profes-
Sional grades is greatly handicapped
board to comply with the require
ments of section 3 of the classification
ton law to prepare and publish an
adequate statement giving the duties
and responsibilities involved in the
classes TO be established within the
several grades with the minimum
qualifications TO he required for the
satisfactory performance of such
duties and tasks and titles for said
classes. This provision of the law
has not been followed, the board
having directed that classification be
prepared by the administrative de-
partments under the bureau of eff
cheney schedule. which schedule con-
tains no qualifications for classes and
only provides for grades.
-. Although the circular issued
by the personnel claSsiticati ton board
under date of August 81, 1929, stated
that its review of the tentative allo-
cations would be completed by Sep
tember l, in time to enable the
departments and establishments to
submit their estimates based on these
tentative ALLEGATIONS by September
). nevertheless. very few of the at
torneys have been able to ascertain
definitely what ALLEGATIONS have been
given to them, the reason assigned by
the departments being that the job
sheets with ALLEGATIONS by the per-
Sonnel classification board have not
been returned To them. In view of
this. it is not improbable that further
claims for adjustment may be pre-
Sented to the bar association with
a request to take such action as may
secure correction Of improper ailo-
cations hereafter reported"