Source: https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/352/40
Timestamp: 2016-12-11 06:37:03
Document Index: 190426462

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 40', '§ 86', '§ 86', '§ 86', '§ 922', '§ 44']

The UNITED STATES, Petitioner, v. Alfred C. BERGH et al. | US Law | LII / Legal Information Institute
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352 U.S. 40 (77 S.Ct. 106, 1 L.Ed.2d 102)
The UNITED STATES, Petitioner, v. Alfred C. BERGH et al.
[HTML] dissent, BURTON, BLACK, FRANKFURTER
[HTML] Mr. Alan S. Rosenthal, Washington, D.C., for petitioner.
Each of the respondents was employed by the Navy under a Schedule of Wages which provided that 'whenever an employee is relieved or prevented from working solely because of the occurrence of any day declared a holiday' he was to receive the same pay for such days as for other days. This language was taken from a Joint Resolution of Congress of June 29, 1938, 52 Stat. 1246,
they have a vested right to an additional full day's wage as 'gratuity pay' for each holiday worked. The Government urges that the 1885 Resolution was repealed in toto by the Joint Resolution of June 29, 1938, or in the alternative that the latter is inconsistent and in conflict with the provisions of the earlier Resolution upon which respondents rely.
The legislative history of the 1938 Resolution is clear. Executive Order No. 7763 of December 6, 1937, 2 Fed.Reg. 2685, excused all government employees from work on December 24, 1937. Under the 1885 Resolution per diem employees received no compensation for that day since the holidays enumerated therein did not include December 24. A Joint Resolution was introduced in the House by Representative Ramspeck to allow holiday pay to per diem employees for that day. On referral to the House Committee on Civil Service, advice was sought from the Civil Service Commission, the Bureau of the Budget, and the Comptroller General. The Civil Service Commission advised by letter dated February 15, 1938, that the 'accounting authorities, however, have held that in the absence of specific legislation the regular employees of the Federal Government whose compensation is fixed at a rate per day, per hour, or on a piece-work basis lose pay for that day. This has resulted in discrimination against these groups of Federal employees.' The Commission advised, further, that 'there is the broader question involved of securing statutory authority for such payments as a general practice * * *.' H.R. Rep. No. 2683, 75th Cong., 3d Sess. 2. The Commission suggested the language that might be inserted in a Resolution that 'would give permanent statutory authority' for holiday pay. In addition, the Commission's reference to the 'accounting authorities' revealed that the Comptroller General had advised the Secretary of the Navy on December 20, 1937, that under existing law (a) per annum employees suffered no loss of income as the result of holidays, whether declared by statute or executive order, where as per diem employees received pay only for those holidays enumerated in the 1885 Resolution; (b) per diem employees received statutory holiday pay whether the holiday happened to fall on a nonwork day (Saturday or Sunday) or not, while per annum workers were allowed neither additional pay nor holiday time when the holiday happened to fall on a nonwork day; and (c) if a per diem employee worked on a statutory holiday falling on such a nonwork day, he received double pay.
Furthermore, there is no indication anywhere in its Report that any portion of the 1885 Resolutionmuch less any administrative practice thereunderwas to survive. In addition to this unequivocal statement that the purpose of the 1938 Resolution was to repeal the 1885 one, the Committee further revealed by its action under the Rules of the 75th Congress that it so intended. The Rules required a Committee reporting out a bill repealing an act or part thereof to include in its report the text of the act or part thereof proposed to be repealed. The Report here included the text of the 1885 Resolution in toto. On the other hand, if it was intended only that the 1885 Resolution be amended, the Rules required the Committee to insert in its report a comparative print of the part of the act which it proposed to be amended. Here no such comparative print was inserted.
Moreover, the few brief statements on the floor of the House show nothing to the contrary. Representative Ramspeck declared that the Resolution 'gives the same right to per diem employees as to the regular monthly employees.' Representative Rogers stated, 'This simply prevents an unintentional discrimination.' Nothing was said as to the 1885 Resolution, nor did anyone contend, contrary to the Committee Report, that it was not the intention to repeal it in toto. See 83 Cong.Rec. 94669467.
It is contended that the purpose of the 1938 Resolution was to increase the number of holidays for per diem employees to include those allowed by executive order, but to leave intact the allowance of double pay for per diem employees who worked on the holidays specified in the 1885 Resolution. This cannot be correct for no one contends that the 1938 Resolution did not repeal the 1885 Resolution, as interpreted, with reference to holiday pay on nonwork days. That being so, we cannot see why the 1885 Resolution should be regarded as having been left unrepealed with reference to holiday pay on work days.
Moreover, respondents' contention is entirely untenable in light of the Committee Report. Confusion would be created rather than eliminated if the contention were accepted. The purpose, as shown by the letters, the advisory opinion, the Report, and the statements on the floor of the House, was to alleviate discriminations as to holiday pay and to treat employees alike insofar as possible. This the 1938 Resolution accomplished. Should the respondents' interpretation prevail, it would result in a double standard of pay for per diem employees working on holidays. On those holidays included in the 1885 Resolution, the employees would receive double pay, while on holidays included in or created pursuant to the authority provided by the 1938 Resolution alone they would receive only single pay. This result is required because the 1938 Resolution permits no holiday pay when the employee is required to work. We cannot attribute such anomalous results to the Congress. It is urged that our interpretation would result in a per diem employee receiving the same pay for working on a holiday as is received by his fellow employee who is excused from so working. But this is no discrimination as it likewise is visited upon the per annum employee.
This contemporaneous interpretation of the 1938 Resolution by the agency charged with its supervisionan interpretation followed by all agencies of the Governmenttogether with acquiescence of the Congress, must be given great weight.
As we noted earlier, this case is not disposed of by United States v. Kelly, 342 U.S. 193, 72 S.Ct. 213, 96 L.Ed. 222, and nothing in Kelly lends support to the employees' argument here. Kelly was a printer employed at the Government Printing Office. The wages of employees in Kelly's office were fixed by a collective-bargaining agreement pursuant to the Act of June 7, 1924, 43 Stat. 658, 44 U.S.C.A. § 40. This Act, though amended, remained in effect as to the provisions involved here at the time of Kelly's claim. The Contract Kelly sued on was entered into by the Government under this Act. We said the problem was 'whether the (1938) Resolution somehow precludes the awarding of the gratuity pay which the agreement (so made) seems to grant.' 342 U.S. at page 194, 72 S.Ct. at page 214. We held that 'since the agreement provided for gratuity pay for holidays worked, (Kelly) was entitled to such pay.'
The award to Kelly, then, was solely on the basis of the collective-bargaining agreement. Here there is no such agreement. There is nothing on which the employees can rely which affirmatively grants the double pay they claim.
The Joint Resolution of January 6, 1885, 23 Stat. 516, 5 U.S.C. (1934 ed.) § 86, 5 U.S.C.A. § 86, provided
'That the employees of the Navy Yard, Government Printing Office, Bureau of Printing and Engraving, and all other per diem employees of the Government on duty at Washington, or elsewhere in the United States, shall be allowed the following holidays, to wit: The first day of January, the twenty-second day of February, the fourth day of July, the twenty-fifth day of December, and such days as may be designated by the President as days for national thanksgiving, and shall receive the same pay as on other days.'
On December 6, 1937, the President, by Executive Order No. 7763, 2 Fed.Reg. 2685, closed the government offices and excused all government employees from work on Friday, December 24, the day before Christmas. As December 24 was not a holiday specified by the Resolution of 1885, as amended, the Acting Comptroller General by letter of December 20, 1937, advised the Secretary of the Navy that per diem employees of the Navy Department would not be entitled either to gratuity or scheduled pay for that day unless, of course, they earned the latter by working. The difficulty was that the government offices had been closed by an Executive Order whereas the Resolutions limited the allowance of holiday gratuities to a list of statutory holidays.
The above-mentioned letter gave unquestioning recognition to the existing statutory authorization of gratuity pay for specified holidays, whether or not additionally compensated labor was performed on those days. It contained no suggestion that such payments were invalid or even unwise, except to point out that the existing law allowed such gratuities even when a holiday occurred on a nonworkday. On this point, the letter commented that 'even when any of such holidays falls on a nonworkday (such as a Saturday), such employees receive pay for the holiday when no work is performed thereon, in addition to the full week's pay otherwise earned, and double compensation for the day if work is performed thereon.' H.R.Rep.No. 2683, 75th Cong., 3d Sess. 5.
"Sec. 2. The joint resolution of January 6, 1885 (U.S.C., title 5, sec. 86), and all other laws inconsistent or in conflict with the provisions of this Act are hereby repealed to the extent of such inconsistency or conflict." H.R.Rep.No.2683, 75th Cong., 3d Sess. 2.
The few brief statements made by the sponsor of the Resolution, Representative Ramspeck, at the time of its adoption, confirm the view that the Resolution was merely a corrective measure intended to aid 'the lowest-paid group of employees in the Government service,' rather than a measure designed to abolish substantial benefits enjoyed by per diem laborers under a 50-year-old governmental practice.
'With regard to its per diem and per hour employees, the so-called wage board employees, the Government is in competition with private employers, and attempts to keep its wages and working conditions in step with those in private enterprise. It is completely unthinkable that the owner of a printing shop could, by practice, or by contract, maintain the policy as to holiday pay which the Government here seeks to attribute to Congress. Such an employer might, and many employers did, in 1938, have a policy of not paying for holidays not worked. If the holiday was worked, it was paid for. Some such employers then, and most of them now (1951) have contracts with their employees providing for paid holidays, but in all such contracts there is a provision that if the holiday is in fact worked, it will be paid for again, usually at premium pay, and in addition to the holiday pay. But in no case which we have heard of, or can imagine, could an employer maintain a practice whereby an employee who worked on a holiday received merely the same pay as one who did not work.'
Joint Resolution of June 29, 1938, c. 818, 52 Stat. 1246, 5 U.S.C. 86a, 5 U.S.C.A. § 86a:
The policy of allowing gratuity pay for holidays worked in peacetime and of prohibiting it in wartime is reflected in a section of the Federal Employees Pay Act of 1945, 59 Stat. 298, 5 U.S.C. 922, 5 U.S.C.A. § 922. This section provided for gratuity pay for holidays worked but was not to go into effect until the cessation of hostilities in World War II. By implication then, there was no gratuity pay allowed by statute for holidays worked during wartime.
In 1887 a fifth holiday was addedMemorial Day. Joint Resolution of February 23, 1887, 24 Stat. 644. For an earlier similar provision, applicable only to employees of the Government Printing Office, see 21 Stat. 304. A subsequent like provision for such employees, the Act of January 12, 1895, 28 Stat. 601, 607, 44 U.S.C.A. § 44, was 'consistently administered as providing for gratuity pay in addition to regular compensation if the employee worked on a holiday.' United States v. Kelly, 342 U.S. 193, 195, 72 S.Ct. 213, 214.
See 8 Comp.Dec. 322 (1901); 13 Comp.Dec. 40 (1906); 21 Comp.Dec. 566 (1915); 22 Comp.Dec. 404 (1916); 24 Comp.Dec. 218 (1917); 24 Comp.Dec. 529 (1918); 3 Comp.Gen. 411 (1924); and 15 Comp.Gen. 809 (1936). See also, Kelly v. United States, 96 F.Supp. 611, 612613, 119 Ct.Cl. 197, 206207.
The letter of December 20, 1937, appears in full in H.R.Rep. No. 2683, 75th Cong., 3d Sess. 35, relating to House Joint Resolution 551, later approved June 29, 1938, and now before us.
See also, a study entitled 'Personnel Practices Governing Factory and Office Administration,' prepared in 1937 by F. Beatrice Brower for the National Industrial Conference Board, Inc., New York City. This covered about 450 industrial concerns employing wage earners totaling about 370,000. (P. 2.) Over 60% of such companies paid some type of premium or gratuity to their wage earners for work performed on Sundays or holidays, the extra pay ranging from 25% to 100%, in addition to the regular rate of pay. (Pp. 3637.)
Kelly v. United States (two judges dissenting), 96 F.Supp. 611, 119 Ct.Cl. 197, aff'd on other grounds, United States v. Kelly, 342 U.S. 193, 72 S.Ct. 213, 96 L.Ed. 222; and the instant case, Bergh v. United States (one judge dissenting), 132 F.Supp. 462, 132 Ct.Cl. 564. See also, Adams v. United States, 42 Ct.Cl. 191, 212213.