Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1924-11-09

Efficiency Rating Having
Been Adopted, Board viii
Tackle Protests.

With an efficiency rating system to
be applied to all employees in the
civil service in the District of CO.
iumhia approved. and instructions re-
Earding ITS use sent to departmental
and establishment heads, the Person
mel Classification Board is now free
10 plunge into its principal remaining
task for the present-the review of
appeals on ALLEGATIONS.
About 5000 appeals from original
ALLEGATIONS of employees 70 grades
haN" been made since the beginning
of this fiscal year. Chairman F. J..
Bailey reported yesterday. About
half this number have been disposed
of. decisions reached and the depart
ments notified.
With the efficiency rating system
out of the way now. having been
adopted by unanimous Vote of the
three members OF the board yester
day morning. practically the entire
attention of the board can be turned
to consideration of appeals.
Appeals Diminish.
The number of appeals submitted
to the board has been slowly dimin-
ishing within the past few weeks
showing that. in the opinion of the
hoard. the situation in regard to
classification is settling down to
some degree OF satisfaction and per-
nancnt'y.
Opponents of the board and it's pol
ictes. however. have consistently CON
tended that the classification system
is wrong, and that efforts will be
made at the next session of Congress
to enact the LehIbach bill. already
PASSED by the House. which would
abolish the Personnel Classification
Board. and transfer it's activities and
functions 20 the Civil Service Com
mission.
Although the classification board
has been divided on the main system
OF class Specifications now in effect
with Guy MOffett, representative Of
the Civil Service Commission, voting
no on practically every major pro-
posal trend toward more una
nimity. within the board itself was
evident yesterday when, for the first
time in months. the board voted
unanimously 10 adopt in its final form
q major prugram-the efficiency rat
inE system. This system was worked
OFT by the Bureau OF Efficiency, rep
resented on the board b. Harold n
Graves. and received the vote of all
thre- members of the classification
board. Chairman Bailey, Graves and
Moffett.
Instructions Sent Out.
Extensive and comprehensive in
strUctIons have been forwarded to
departmental and esta hlishment heads
of the Government for them to place
the new efficiency rating system in
effect November ), marking employees
on their performance for the past six
months There are to be two such
ratings each year under the new sys-
TENN May and November EN-
ployeS viii be promoted, denoted, re-
tanned in their present status or DIS
missed, under the operation of the
efficiency rating system based on a
simple graphic scale.
At first the rating will apply only
to those employees within the scope of
the classification act who are under
the civil service. But so favorably
has the new efficiency system been
considered by Government heads in
charge of establishments outside of
the civil service that there is pos
sibility its use may be extended to
many thousands more.
Features Familiar.
The efficiency system was submit
ted by the Bureau of Efficiency
proposal TO the departm entail and es-
Establishment heads before it finally
Received the OK. of the Bureau of
Efficiency itself. So that those who
will be charged with responsibility
. for putting it into effect are already
familiar with the principal features.
The new system was the subject of
widespread comment and discussion
among Government employees yester-
day afternoon following the final ac-
tion of the board and publication in
detail for the first time, of the
graphic rating scale, and the princi-
pal instructions to departments
II was described by some as a sys-
tenn within system, as it is the plan
by which Government heads will rate
employees within the classification
provided by the classification act.
Some little confusion existed in
certain quarters, owing to the mis-
taken impression that the new eff
cheney rating might be used by the
classification board. 1t is not for use
OF the board itself, officials explained.
The board by law was required to
view and approve any system of eff
cheney rating. This system was pre-
pared, submitted to the board, which
adopted it, and has now passed it on
to the heads of Government depart
ments and establishments, who will
put it into effect with the first rating
beginning next Saturday.
Continues Program.
The classification board continues
on it's program of handling the prob
lem of allocating employees to proper
grades, and reviewing appeals.
Action Will be taken by the board,
it was indicated yesterday, to bring
to the attention Of Congress the
working Of the average provision,
which under the ruling of Controller
General McCarl now operates to
cause an emDloye to be cut in salary in
certain instances when it is wished to
promote him or her.
4 letter Will be sent to the Speaker
of the House and the President of the
Senate within a short time, it was
learned, calling their attention to this
peculiar situation and suggesting an
amendment to the ella Justification law
which would allow transfers and pro-
motions of persons from one grade to
another without cuts in salary. The
board will not recommend vital
changes in the average provision,
however, it was learned. This pro-
vision is held by some members of
the board not only to have been in
serted with elaboration by Congress,
but also to be a provision of actual
h. IL.