Evening star., 1958-03-13

Q. laD0r-managemenC pollcy lot
In testimony yesterday bef
committee. Paul Nagle, presiden
port Association, declared Fed
eral employe union leaders have
tried in vain to meet with the
Secretary on the proposed order.
Mr.. Nagle, who also is chair
man of the AFL-CIO Govern
ment Employees Councils Com
lmittee on Labor Management
Relations, said it has been
nearly a year since the group
has conferred with Mr.. Mitch
ell. All subsequent attempts to
meet with him have been re-
buffed, Mr.. Nagle said. adding
that at least half a dozen at
tempts to arrange a meeting
with the Secretary have failed.
Last September 20. Mr.. Nagle
said, he had reached the Secre-
tary by phone and was told
there was no point in meeting
with the group until the study
ION the proposed order had been
completed. Since then all re-
quests for a meeting have been
ignored, the House group was
told.
The witness cited the situa-
ton in support of his conten-
ton that the administration
apparently has no intention of
issuing such q proposed execu-
tive order and, therefore, legis-
lation by Congress is necessary.
The House subcommittee is
holding hearings on a bill to
extend official recognition to
Federal employe unions and to
require agencies to deal with
them on personnel issues and
grievances.
Mr.. Nagle said that. about
year ago, Secretary Mitchell
and other administration off,
cials appeared receptive to a
proposed presidential executive
order.
However, Mr.. Nagle declared,
administration officials have
cooled of noticeably on the
proposal, particularly since the
departure of Civil Service Com
missioner Christopher Phillips,
who strongly supported such a
plan.
HIGHLIGHTS-Here are the
highlightS of hearings by the
House Appropriations Subcotn-
mittee on the 1859 Independent
OfhceS bill, as Civil Service
Commission officials appeared
before the group.
. The civil service retirement
systems unfunded liability has
grown to $19 billion and the
liability continues to grow, de-
spite the fact that the Govern
ment for the past year has
matched its employees 6.5 per
cent contribution to the fund.
Additional appropriations by
Congress each year are needed
not only to reduce the unfunded
liability but to keep it from
getting bigger.
. The csc estimates that
327.500 new Federal workers
will be hired during the next
fiscal year to replace those leav-
ing due to normal turnover.
4 . Representative Thorn a S,
Democrat Of Texas, chairman
of the group. was caustic in
his comments about the csc
having more employees in Grades
II through 18 on a pro-rata
basis than any other agency
in the Government" He added,
you have taken better care
Of your employees than anybody
else"
Mr.. Thomas also raised the
question of annual leave in
debtedness on the part of Fed
eral agencies, declaring, Il
wouldn't be surprised if it
doesn't run into excess of half
a billion dollars right now, or
a billion. 1t is accumulat-
ing and growing by leaps and
bounds every day." He was re-
ferring to cash terminal leave
payments that agencies must
make to employees when they
leave the Government.
| - -
LEAVE-The general coun-
sci of the General Accounting
Office has ruled on questions
raised by Federal agencies re-
garding last months snow
storm. The ruling was on be-
half Of GAO employees. but
since the agency rules on all
Government-wide questions Of
this sort, the rulings apply to
all other Federal bureaus.
New Federal employees with
less than 80 days service and
thus who have earned no an
nual leave are entitled to ad-
ministrative leave-no charge
to their vacation time-for the
Monday involved.
Other Government employees
who stayed home Monday will
only be charged annual leave
for the day until 2:30 pm.
Thus, in most cases, the annual
leave charged will amount to
about 51a hours. This is
because employees who did
show up for work we're excused
m adnninisfratiVe leave at