CONTENTS Barry, Hon. William B., Representative in Congress from the State of New York, statement on H. R. 2716_. Gibson, Mr. Charles E., president, National Association of Post Office and Railway Mail Laborers, Cincinnati, Ohio, statement of, on III COMPENSATION AND LEAVE FOR POSTAL EMPLOYEES TUESDAY, MAY 24, 1938 UNITED STATES SENATE, COMMITTEE ON POST OFFICES AND POST ROADS, Washington, D. C. The committee met, pursuant to call, at 2 p. m., in the committee room of the Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads, the Capitol, Senator Kenneth McKellar (chairman) presiding. The committee had under consideration H. R. 6383, a bill to reclassify the salaries of watchmen, messengers, and laborers in the Postal Service, which is here printed in full as follows: [H. R. 6383,75th Cong., 1st sess.] AN ACT To reclassify the salaries of watchmen, messengers, and laborers in the Postal Service, and to prescribe the time credits for service as substitute watchmen, messengers, and laborers, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States o America in Congress assembled, That section 5, as amended, of the Act entitled "An Act reclassifying the salaries of postmasters and employees of the Postal Service, readjusting their salaries and compensation on an equitable basis, increasing postal rates to provide for such readjustment, and for other purposes", approved February 28, 1925, as amended (U. S. C., 1934 edition, title 39, sec. 101; Supp. II, title 39, sec. 101), is amended to read as follows: "SEC. 5. (a) Watchmen, messengers, and laborers in first- and second-class post offices, the United States Stamped Envelope Agency, and the Railway Mail Service, shall be divided into three grades, as follows: First grade, salary $1,500; second grade, salary $1,600; third grade, salary $1,700. Such watchmen, messengers, and laborers shall be promoted successively after one year's satisfactory service in each grade until they reach the third grade. All promotions shall be made at the beginning of the quarter following one year's satisfactory service in the grade. "(b) The pay of substitute watchmen, messengers, and laborers in such post offices, Agency, and Service shall be at the rate of 55 cents per hour. Whenever any substitute watchman, messenger, or laborer is appointed to a permanent position as watchman, messenger, or laborer, he shall receive credit for actual time served as a substitute, on a basis of one year for each two hundred and fifty-four days of eight hours served as a substitute, and shall be appointed to the grade to which he would have progressed had his original appointment as substitute been to grade 1. Any fractional part of a year's service as a substitute watchman, messenger, or laborer shall be included with service as a watchman, messenger, or laborer in any such post office, Agency, or Service in determining eligibility for promotion to the next higher grade following appointment to a regular position.' SEC. 2. The third, fourth, and fifth paragraph (relating to the classification, promotion, and pay of laborers in the Railway Mail Service) of section 7 of such Act, as amended (U. S. C., 1934 edition, title 39, secs. 606 and 607), are hereby repealed, effective when the amendments made by section 1 of this Act are operative. Passed the House of Representatives June 2, 1937. SOUTH TRIMBLE, Clerk. The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Gibson, representing the National Association of Post Office and Railway Mail Laborers desires to make a statement. Mr. Gibson, we will be glad to hear from you. 1 STATEMENT OF CHARLES E. GIBSON, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF POST OFFICE AND RAILWAY MAIL LABORERS, CINCINNATI, OHIO Mr. GIBSON. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen: This bill, H. R. 6383, was passed by the House of Representatives on June 2, 1937, and would give the laborers in the Postal Service another grade of $100, making three grades of $1,500, $1,600, and $1,700, instead of the present two grades of $1,500 and $1,600. If this bill were to become a law, a laborer in order to receive the highest grade will have to be in the Service at least 3 years and in most instances must have served as a substitute employee from 5 to 7 years before he is made a regular employee and receives the top grade. He must have a good record before he can receive the third grade, if he is in the second grade at present. This makes it a promotion instead of an increase in salary; in other words, he must show that he deserves the increase before he can receive it. The officials of the Post Office Department admit that the bill has merits, but they must oppose it because the Director of the Budget objects to it. The Department does not oppose it very strongly, except that they do object to a substitute laborer receiving time credits for appointment to a regular position on the basis of 1 year for each 254 days of 8 hours served as a substitute. This is covered in line 17 and line 18 on page 2 of the bill. They recommend the rate of 306 days of 8 hours as time service, which is the present law. We have no objections to this change in the bill. In 1925 when the Reclassification Act was passed, clerks and carriers in the Postal Service received an increase in salary of $300 while our group received an increase of $150. Prior to the passage of this act, our group received a top salary of $50 more than a first-grade clerk's salary, while under the present salary law we receive $100 less than they do. If this bill should become a law we would receive the same salary in our top grade that a first-grade clerk or carrier would receive, and at the same time $50 less than we would be receiving, had we received the $300 increase in 1925, which increase was based on the high cost of living at that time. Living costs are about the same at present as they were then. Very few clerks or carriers are ever appointed as regulars in the first grade. In most instances they are appointed at the top grade of $2,100. For 13 years we have been trying to secure an adjustment of this wrong, and this is the first time that we have had a committee who would give us a hearing and help us pass this bill, which I hope that you will do. We know that we have a just argument and a good one. The duties of a laborer in a post office are to receive the mails in sacks or large bundles and see that they are sent to the proper place for distribution by clerks, to tie up the sacks for dispatching and to see that they are dispatched to the right place. If a mistake is made the mail is delayed and a laborer is punished the same as a clerk. Our work is as important to the proper and efficient manner in which the mail service is run as any other work performed by other employees in the Postal Service. We are called upon by the supervisors to do any and all kinds of work, and we do it efficiently. Many of our group have been promoted to positions of clerks and carriers and several of them have been made supervisors. This shows that we are an important part of the Service. We hope that you will report this bill favorably to the Senate and that you will help to pass it. The CHAIRMAN. The Department is against this bill, you say? Mr. GIBSON. I think if you will read the report of the Department on that that you will conclude that they are not so strongly against the bill, only that the Director of the Budget is opposed to it. Senator FRAZIER. How much would this increase cost? Senator FRAZIER. A year? Mr. GIBSON. Yes; so I am told. We do quite a bit of work of a clerical nature. We are a very vital part of the Service and perform a necessary part of the Service. A number of our men have been promoted to clerks and carriers and we have several throughout the country who are supervisors. Senator FRAZIER. How much are they getting now? Mr. GIBSON. $1,600 a year. That is the top grade. The CHAIRMAN. The others are getting $1,500? Mr. GIBSON. Yes. Senator ELLENDER. That is not changed? Mr. GIBSON. No. In place of making a top rate salary increase, here is what it would do: If this bill is passed, the man's record would have to be good and he would have to be recommended by the postmaster. It is more of a promotion than a salary-grade increase. Senator ELLENDER. Under this bill you establish those extra classes? Mr. GIBSON. Yes. Senator ELLENDER. And the additional amount is only $100 per year? Mr. GIBSON. Yes. Senator ELLENDER. And that makes it go up to $520,000? Mr. GIBSON. There are 6,000 laborers in the Service. Senator ELLENDER. 6,000? Mr. GIBSON. Approximately, but the Department says it will cost $450,000, and in the Railway Mail Service, $70,000. I think that is their report. The CHAIRMAN. $520,000. Senator ELLENDER. You compare the salaries of the people you represent with the other departments of the Service? Mr. GIBSON. With the clerks, post-office clerks. The letter carrier starts in, if he does not substitute at $1,700 and goes from grade to grade to the fifth grade or $2,100, but ordinarily in very few instances does a clerk get an appointment as a clerk without substituting. Senator ELLENDER. Do they take any employees from the department you represent and make clerks of them? Mr. GIBSON. They have to stand another examination and it is not done without that. The present law permits a laborer to take a noncompetitive examination. If he passes he is put on the bottom of the substitute list. The CHAIRMAN. All right, sir, we thank you. |