Evening star., 1942-01-27
Staggering Adds
.5Hours 10 DC.
Workers Week
1000 Put on 8 AN.
To A::30 PM. Shift
Starting Feb. 9

District government workers. ex-
cept for school teachers, policemen
and flremen, will work from 8 am.
to 4:30 pm, except on Saturdays,
under staggered-hour system or
dered today by the Commissioners.
The change Is effective February 9,
the same day that daylight saving
time goes into effect. This will raise
the work week from 80 to A hours.
The order will apply to nearly
1000 municipal workers who now re-
port at 8:45 am. and quit at Ais
pm. On Saturdays, under the new
system, these workers will work from
8 am. until II, instead of 8:45 am.
until 12:45 pm.
The rules were recommended by
Budget Ofncer Walter L. Fowler and
had the Endorsement of Traffic Di-
rector William A. Van DuZer.
Meanwhile, about IS speciality
stores in downtown Washington
have agreed to change their closing
hours from 545 to pm. to help
relieve traffic congestion, Edward D.
Shaw, executive secretary of the
Merchants and Manufacturers As
sociation, said today.
No definite action was taken, Mr..
Shaw said, by members of the de-
partment store division of the asso-
citation at a meeting today. The de-
partment store executives, he ex-
planned, wanted more time to study
the problem.
Mr. Van Duzer told the Traffic
Committee of the Board of Trade
yesterday that he had recon-
mended to department store Of
ficials that they change from
their present $50 am. to 5:45 pm.
schedule to a 10 am. to 6:15 pm.
schedule, and had suggested that
this step not only would relieve traf-
fic congestion, but would give Fed
eral workers now on longer sched-
ules more time to shop after work.
Hour Of 6 Indicated.
1t was believed, however, that If
the larger stores do decide to change,
the closing hour would be shifted to
pm, rather than 6:15 pm. One
department store, Woodward g.
Lothrop's, already has shifted to the
6:15 closing hour.
Mr.. Van Duzer said merchants
are cooperating Fundamentally"
but that the main problem facing
officials is that of reducing the 5
pm. load. At that hour, he said,
some 74,000 Federal and private en-
ployes leave their places of employ
ment. A similar situation prevails
at 9 am, when some $4,000 workers,
including both Government and pri-
vate employees, report for work.
The new Staggered-h system
which has just become effective will
improve the general picture" he
said, "but we need a wider spread
of the starting and quitting hours,
as well as a reduction in the num-
ber of workers reporting at am.
and the number leaving at 5 pm"
Mr.. Van Duzer predicted that
serious traffic congestion" will
result unless about one-third of
those starting work at 9 am. and
the same percentage of workers
leaving their Offices at pm. are
shifted to other starting or quitting
hours Efforts are being made
toward this end, he said.
Earlier Starts Suggested.
He suggested that the situation
could be improved materially If more
employees could be shifted to earlier
starting hours-7:15, 7:30 and 7:45
am. The traffic director voiced hope
that most of the thousands of new
Government workers expected to
come to Washington by July would
be placed on the early starting
hours.
Pointing out that the mass trans
portation systems now carry between
81 and SIS per cent of the riding
public, Mr.. Van Duzer predicted
that the figure may go as high as
rs per cent when the public begins
to feel the effects of tire rationing.
The traffic director said that
when the first systematic stagger-
ing of employment hours was put
into effect in April, 1941, there we're
about 1000 Federal workers BY
July /, 1912, the number probably
will be at least 100000, he ssid.
Dean j. Locke, Capital Transit
Col engineer, told the committee
that the response of private indus
try to requests for staggering their
hours had been gratifying, but that
the job is ''far from done" He
predicted that some Federal de-
partments and agencies would find
it necessary to inaugurate individual
staggered hour systems as their per<
Sonnel increases.