Evening star., 1932-08-10
CIVIL SERVICE VOTE
BANS SHORT WEEK
|. AFTER NEW ORDER
Commission Employees Fear
Added Loss in Latest
MCCarI Decision.
FiVE-DAY PLAN KEPT
IN LABOR DEPARTMENT
Action in Other Agencies Uncer-
tain-Added Cuts Loom in Saw
ings to Avert Dismissals.

Abiding by the result Of referendum
among the employees the Civil Service
Commission this afternoon announced
abandonment of the fve-day week, fol-
lowing a ruling by Controller General
McCarl that put a penalty on this
method Of administering the legislative
furlough provision of the economy law.
The controller general, late yesterday,
in an opinion to the Civil Service Com
mission, reaffirmed his previous decision
that a pay deduction of one-eleventh
must be required where the five-day
week is in vogue, instead of the one
twelfth that would be deducted where
the payleSs leave is otherwise admin
iStered
The commission had appealed from
| the former ruling, and had decided at
the same time If the decision was ad-
verse to give to the employees the oppor-
tunity to say if they desired to stay on
the five-day schedule, even though it
entailed further pay loss of three
| fourths of l per cent.
The balloting was carried out this
| morplng. and resulted in 1875 votes
| against and 154 for.
Effect Is Uncertain.
1t was thereupon announced by E.
Claude Babcock, the secretary, that the
commission would abandon its venture.
Previously members of the commission
| staff voted 245 to 88 in favor of retain
ing the five-day plan, If the pay deduc-
ton was to remain at one-tWelfth.
Whether the McCarl ruling would
have the effect of knocking out the
| flve-day week elsewhere in the Govern
ment establishment was not certain TO-
DAY. In some instances the agencies
are going through with it.
AT the Department of Labor which
alone OF the executive branches has ap-
piled 1t, the announcement was made
tnat Secretary Doak had said it would
oe continued despite McCarls decision.
Deductions Limited.
The Government Printing Office,
Where all but 10 per cent of the work.
ers are on per diem basis and subject
to the one-eleventh cut anyway. also
will continue on the five-day week, as
Will the field service of the Navy,
where about 10000 employees are on a
per diem basis and 1000 on annual.
| An expression is still to come from
| the Employees Compensation Commis-
! for AeronauticS and the Farm Board.
the other groups using this plan.
In his decision, McCarl reversed a
previous ruling and held that the leg
! lslatlve administrative furloughs may be
| carried out concurrently.
/ He continued to maintain, however,
that the deduction of 80 days pay for
the 24-day mandatory legislative fur
Tough must be made whether employees
are on duty or non-duty status.
| This will hold administrative furloughs
to IL months. Where deductions are
made under this provision of the law,
| the money may be retained and used
| to spread employment in the group
affected, whereas all the deductions
made under the legislative furlough are
impounded, reverting to the Treasury.
| The practice in some branches-Farm
Board and United States Court of
Customs and Patent Appeals, for ex-
ample-has been to put some employees
on years furlough, and seek to hold
, the money thus saved to pay those
retained and avoid further cuts. The
! controller general, however, holds that
| one-twelfth of this must bes considered
as legislative furlough, and the money
| turned back to the Government.
This will result in the imposition Of
| additional furloughs in the branches
| required to use the administrative fur
| Tough, of whatever length, as we'll as
the legislative furlough.
Held as Last Resort.
Administrative furloughs, obviously,
| will be applied only as last resort, and
| determined effort is being made
| throughout the Government establish
| ment to avoid them, though in a num-
Der of independent agencies. it will be
impossible to operate otherwise
In the executive departments. how
ever, this phase of the economy bill will
have only limited effect. 1t was ex-
pected that principal sufferers would
be Interior, State, Justice, Commerce
and Labor, where the appropriations
fell under the blanket 10 per cent slash
ordered by the Senate
check today showed, however, that
State and Interior hope TO get by
through transfer of appropriations and
other economies, although, in Interior,
some administrative furlough has been
applied. and will be applied further in
the field
At Labor. it was thought the maxi
mum amount of such furlough would be
Is days, and Justice is working on a
plan, the details of which have not been
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