Evening star., 1936-02-13
COMMITTEE BACKS
ANNUAL FEDERAL
LEAVE OF 26 DAYS
Compromise Agreement Is
Exclusive of Sundays
and Holidays.
ACCUMULATION LIMIT
SLASHED TO so DAYS
Latter Figure Applies to Sick
Leave Also-Measures Now
Please McKellar.
BY l. A OIEARY

A compromise agreement fixing the
annual leave of Government employees
at 26 days, exclusive of Sundays and
holidays, was approved by the Senate
Civil Service Committee today The
present annual leave is limited to Is
days under the economy law.
The limit on accumulation of un-
used leave was reduced from 100
to so days in both the annual and
the sick leave bills. This means
either kind of leave could be ac-
cumulated up to so days.
1t was announced that, with these
and several other amendments, the
bills are acceptable to Senator Nc.
Kellar. Democrat, of Tennessee and
will be taken up in the Senate on
the next call of the unanimous con-
sent calendar Senate leaders have
not fixed a date for that calendar.
Way Is Now Clear.
The committee action clears the
way for passage of the bills, which
have been tied up on the Senate CAL
endar since last August. Senator Nc
Kellar had opposed them as they
came from the House and his opposi-
ton was an effective barrier.
The House bills restored annual
leave to 80 days, exclusive of Sundays
and holidays, as it existed for many
years prior to the economy program,
and reduced sick leave from 80 to Is
days. with a cumulative allowance OF
unused leave up to 120 days in each
bill.
Other changes made by the Senate
committee today were:
The effective date of both bills was
changed to July l of this year, instead
Of July l, 1885.
Uniform Rules Sought.
The section OF the annual leave bill
directing the head of each department
or bureau to prepare regulations setting
forth the hours Of duty per day and
per week for each group of employees
was amplif1ed by directing department
heads to meet in conference to
formulate these rules so that they
would be as nearly uniform as possible
throughout the service.
Another section of the House bill
providing that overtime work could be
added to and accumulated with annual
leave was knocked out.
The sick leave bill was amended to
require employees to present certificates
satisfactory to their department heads
when they have had sick leave, but
this would not necessarily have to be
a doctors certificate.
Conference May Be Asked.
All these changes, if adopted by the
Senate, would still have to go back
to the House, where they either could
be approved on the floor or sent to
conference. In all probability. the
conference would be asked for, in
which case the conferees could reach
final agreement on any basis within
the limits of the action taken by the
two houses.
The agreement finally reached by
the Senate committee on the amount
Of annual leave was somewhat diff.
ferent from the basis of compromise
debated at the last meeting of the
committee. AT that time, it was in
dicated that Senator McKellar was
considering proposal for a fiat limit
of 80 days of annual leave a year,
including Sundays and holidays in
the leave
Members of the committee who took
part in working out the amendments
today were Senator Bulow, Democrat,
of South Dakota, chairman, and Sem
ators Logan, Democrat, of Kentucky:
Nicely, Democrat, of West Virginia;
George, Democrat, of Georgia; Byrd,
Democrat, of Virginia; McKellar; Glib
son, Republican, of Vermont, and
Frazier, Republican, of North Dakota.
Application Is Modified.
The House annual leave bill would
have applied to the employees of any
corporation created by authority Of
Congress and which is controlled or
owned by the Federal Government.
This was modified to apply only to
corporations controlled or owned
wholly" by the Government.
Senator Mcclellan is scheduled to
confer again this afternoon with of.
ficials of the Civil Service Commission
on pending bills to liberalize the op-
tional feature of the retirement law.