Evening star., 1949-04-21

ing the American feoeratlon ol
Government Employees. is expected
to support the measure. A canvass
made by union leaders on Capitol
Hill showed conclusively there Is
no support In favor Of the $3.50
pay raise measure they were
advocating.
Consequently. the unions are
deciding to back the Murray meas
ure. with q view toward liberalizing
its pay raise features by at least
$500 and maybe $500. The Muir
ray bills present features would
provide an average Of only about
$50 increase per employe.
There are other factors infiu-
encing the unions support Of the
Murray bill. 1t will have admin
istration backing and, as such.
must be conceded a definite chance
of passage.
Furthermore, the bill has a
number of long-range liberal
features, which will give many
employees pay raises of from $40o
to 81 900 over a period Of 5-years
and some as much as 81 200.
AS disclosed here last week, the
bill would provide longevity
raises every four years-with a
limit OF three such raises-for en-
ployes In "dead-end jobs. These
are employees who are at the top OF
their respective grades with no
hope of further promotions. The
bill also would provide for 5000
a year within-grade promotions
for employees in middle-bracket
jobs. Also. employees would get
the right to appeal downgradings
and other agency actions to the
Civil Service Commission.
The only groups that might
not favor reclassification are the
postal groups. They are not in
cluded In the Murray bill. which
covers only classified non-postal
employees. Mr.. Murray plans to
introduce a separate reclassi-
fication measure for postal en-
ployes later. but postal union
leaders are still holding out for
a cost-of Living pay raise.
9 90 oH4gs go a1s@ re
TELEPHONE OPERATORS
The Civil Service Commission viii
announce exams for permanent
status Government telephone OPP
orators In July or August. The
present register for these jobs is
exhausted, and present appoint
ments are being made on q tenn
porary basis.
f.,f~ ~ 4 - Ea@
~ HARDSHlP-The personnel Of
fees In the Governments inde-
pendent agencies are hard hit
by the Houses action In limiting
the number Of employees engaged
in personnel work to one for every
l25 workers In an agency.
This provision was inserted into
the 1850 independent Offices
money bill by the House Appro-
priations Committee. The COM
mittee, however, In previous ap-
preparation bills this year placed
no such limitation. Consequently,
the large Government depart
ments are not hampered by the !
to 125 ratio and are operating
on the / to 103 ratio set up last
year by the Budget Bureau.
This inequity Is expected to be
stressed by the independent
bureaus when their appropriations
measure comes up for hearings
soon before the Senate Appro-
priations Committee. They will
ask that the / to 125 ratio pro-
vision be stricken from the bill.
CHANGES ASKED The Ma
tional Civil Service League, the
non profit. non-partisan group
that is financially supported by
the country's outstanding busi-
nessmen. educators and civic
leaders, is demanding a complete
reorganization Of the Civil Service
Commission along the lines Of the
Hoover groups proposals.
James r. Watson. the leagues
new executive director. declared
the commission must be elevated
to q position OF leadership and