Evening star., 1933-02-21
PROPOSED SLASH
IN D. c. EMPLOYEES
| PAY TO Be FOUGHT
City Heads to Resist House
Ban on ReaIIocation of
Positions.
DECLARED CONTRARY
| TO CLASSIFICATION ACT
Civil Service Secretary Fears
Wrecking of Equal Compen-
sation Principle.

Because it would cut the pay of GER
tain District employees, and discriminate
against $500 District employees generally
in favor of Federal employees, the Com
miSSioners will seek to have the clause
banning reallocations of positions elm
mated from the District appropriation
bill as passed by the House, 1t was
learned today.
The Commissioners will make their
appeal at the hearings on the appro-
priation bill before the Senate District
Committee, which start tomorrow morn
ing. They will contend that this pro-
vision. which is not included In any Of
the appropriation bills affecting Federal
workers, will violate the principal on
which the classification act was built
equal pay for equal work. Approximately
$500 Of the Districts 1880 employees
come under the classification act. and
would be affected by the clause.
AT the same time this feature of the
bill came under attack from another
quarter when E. Claude Babcock. secre-
tary of the Civil Service Commission,
wrote to President william Green of
the American Federation of Labor, pro-
testing against the provision on the
grounds mentioned above and on the
additional grounds that it would with
draw the District employees from the
protection OF the classification act,
would be discriminatory against District
employees as compared with Federal en-
ployes, and would serve as a precedent
for wrecking the principles of basing
compensation on work performed
throughout the Federal establishment.
Text of Section.
The section referred to reads: mo
part of the appropriations contained
in this act shall be used to pay any
increase in the salary Of any officer or
by reason of the reallocation of the
position of such officer or employe to
higher grade since June 80, 1892, by
the Personnel Classification Board or
the Civil Service Commission (The
Personnel Classification Board was abb
sorbed into the commission October IL
The economy act of 1882 and the pro-
posed Senate and House amendments
now pending to the Treasury-Post Once
appropriation bill to continue the act
for the next fiscal year do not prevent,
but on the contrary require, that an
| emplOye assigned to new duties with
presidential approval, shall be given at
least the minimum salary of the grade
in which such duties fall
Mr.. Babcock, writing lin my personal
capacity as a member of the labor
group" submitted the matter to Green
for any expression the labor leader
might care to make on 1t. He pointed
out that 1.-THE section would operate to
permit administrative oficers of the
District government to assign employees
to new duties of higher grade without
reallocation, without presenting the
cases to the Civil Service Commission
| Sitting as the Personnel Classification
Board), and thus without the protec-
tion Of the classification act.
Precedent Feared.
"The section is apparently innocu-
ous," Babcock wrote, However, it will
Immediately result in establishment Of
a precedent which will lead to a spread
over the whole system. 1t amounts to a
virtual suspension of the classification
act for the money appropriated by the
bill. BY comparison it would be approx
imately equivalent to assigning jour-
neyman duty to an apprentice and leav-
ing him with his apprentice wage"
If 1t Is the intention of Congress to
reduce the salaries Of grades, it has, Of
course. the power to do so, but it should
be done uniformly and by the amend
ment of the classification schedules"
Mr.. Babcock's statement said. This Is,
OF course, not recommended, but would
be a more defensible policy than the
! insertion Of Irregularities in the pay
ments made to employees performing
similar duties.
In so far as this provision affects
only the District of Columbia govern
ment, 1t is grave discrimination
It is pointed out that the section does
not prevent assignment of more i'm
portant duties to an employe, but sim
ply permits payment not in accordance
with duties performed
Principle Held Violated.
''The discussion N the House on the
section" the statement says, 'leads one
to believe that the members Of the
House thought they were preventing ad-
ministrative increases, whereas, in fact,
they were violating the principle of
equal compensation for equal work.
Section has not received that seri-
Gus consideration which should be given
any major variation from the standards
OF payment for services. 1t is, in fact,
an abandonment of the pay for work
performed theory"
As 1t was pointed out, II this section
were made operative, 1t would not only
prevent pay increases in the next fiscal
year, but it would also reduce the COM
pensation Of any employees who have OBJ
tained such increases in the current
fiscal year.
Babcock Is a member of the American
Federation OF Government Employees,
which is an affiliate Of the American
Federation of Labor.