Mr. BAILEY. Where they have wage boards fixing compensation The CHAIRMAN (interposing). This includes those drawing the present $240 bonus? Mr. BAILEY. The amount of bonus for the 88,790 employees during the present fiscal year is $14,905,513, and the total amount of base pay and bonus is $149,137,839. The CHAIRMAN. According to the figures of the Personnel Classification Board the bonus is $14,905,513, but the sum of $20,723,461 has been submitted by the Budget Bureau. CLASS OF EMPLOYEES EXCLUDED FROM INCREASE Mr. McREYNOLDS. There are certain employees in skilled trades and skilled and semiskilled laborer positions that are excluded in the District, and they are also left out of the lists of the field services. A good many employees in such positions receive the bonus at the present time. The CHAIRMAN. They are left out in the District, but they do carry the bonus in the field? Mr. McREYNOLDS. They carry the bonus in the District, also; but they are left out of the classification. They were not covered by the classification, the theory being that the board was not covering skilled trades, and we made no attempt to cover them in the field service. Therefore there are some thousands of employees that are covered in the estimates of the Budget Bureau that were not included in the lists submitted to the Personnel Classification Board. The CHAIRMAN. Let me get this right, now. The Classification Board was not authorized to incorporate in their report to the House and the Senate employees within certain services; is that right? Mr. BAILEY. We assumed that the theory of the act eliminating those positions from classification in the District would also hold for the field, and that the same reason that impelled Congress to leave them out of classification in the District would probably govern Congress in leaving them out of a classification system for the field. The CHAIRMAN. For example, like positions in the Government Printing Office? Mr. BAILEY. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. They were not classified under the Lehlbach Act, but they do get the bonus? Mr. BAILEY. Yes, sir. Mr. BUCHANAN. There must be a good many of them, in view of this amount of $6,000,000. Mr. McREYNOLDS. There are. The CHAIRMAN. This $14,000,000 that you refer to is the amount represented by those who draw the bonus and who are included in the report that you have made to Congress for classification purposes? Mr. BAILEY. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. You do not pretend to have covered all of the Government employees in the field in your report? Mr. BAILEY. No, sir. The CHAIRMAN. But all of those receiving the bonus have been incorporated in the report made by the Director of the Budget to this committee? Mr. BAILEY. Yes, sir. AMOUNT OF INCREASE RECOMMENDED BY BUDGET BUREAU Mr. BYRNS. Does this report carry everybody who would be entitled to receive the benefits of the classification act? Mr. BAILEY. Within the board's contemplation of what Congress intended as interpreted by what they did under the reclassification act for the District, yes, sir. The increase recommended by the Budget Bureau, above base pay and bonus, is $5,591,346, or about 4 per cent. The increase shown by the lists prepared by the heads of departments and transmitted by the personnel classification board to the Congress, is $8,942,997, or about 6 per cent. Now, I said that the Personnel Classification Board had representatives who sat with the departments and establishments while they prepared those lists. That was for the purpose of giving advice. INCREASE ESTIMATED FOR CUSTOMS SERVICE We soon found two places where our representatives could not agree with the lists that were being prepared by the departments. One of those places was the Customs Service, and the Budget Bureau asked the personnel classification board, as an advisory matter, to go over the customs positions just as though the board were reviewing those positions. The CHAIRMAN. Under the assumption that they were being classified? Mr. BAILEY. Yes, sir. The customs service asked the Budget Bureau for $2,003,000. The advice that the Budget Bureau got from the Personnel Classification Board, after its review of each one of those positions, was that $997,000 would be a fair sum to bring the customs positions to a parity with District of Columbia positions. That was 7.7 per cent. Because of some added personnel that I I think you have given the customs service within the last few months, the figure finally reached by the Budget Bureau, on the basis of the advice of the Personnel Classification Board, is $1,102,000, whereas they were asking $900,000 more than that. INCREASE ESTIMATED FOR CUSTODIAL SERVICE, SUPERVISING ARCHITECT'S OFFICE The same situation developed with respect to the Supervising Architect's Office. The Supervising Architect's Office asked the Budget Bureau for $1,095,000. The CHAIRMAN. How many people do they have? The CHAIRMAN. That is, in the custodial service? Mr. BAILEY. Yes, sir; all over the country. The Classification. Board did not have time to review each one of those positions, but it advised that those 6,000 positions in the custodial service in the field were quite fairly comparable with 9,000 custodial positions in the District of Columbia, provided the messengers were taken out of the 9,000 in the District. Taking out the messengers, the average salary granted under the allocations approved by the classification board for custodial positions in the District of Columbia was used to multiply the number of custodial employees in the field force of the Supervising Architect's Office, and the estimate arrived at was $335,000, instead of the $1,095,000, as estimated to the Budget Bureau by the Supervising Architect's Office. Mr. BYRNS. You mean by that, Mr. Bailey, that these others who have been eliminated in the manner you say would not be classed under the reclassification act? Mr. BAILEY. You are speaking of messengers? Mr. BYRNS. I am talking about the custodial force. You said you reduced that sum from $1,095,000 to $335,000, which was a reduction of $700,000. Is that the permanent action of the reclassification board, and do you mean to say that the others will not come under the reclassification act, as that act is construed by the board? The CHAIRMAN. Giving them $335,000, would bring them up to a level with those who are classified? Mr. BYRNS. It brings that percentage up, but what about the balance? Mr. McREYNOLDS. That entire $1,095,000 was for an increase in salaries. We merely gave them a third of what they asked for in increases in salaries. Mr. BYRNS. I thought you had eliminated them. Mr. BAILEY. There are approximately 6,000 employees in the Supervising Architect's office in the field, and there are approximately 9,000 custodial positions in the District of Columbia. There are no messengers in the custodial force of the Supervising Architect's office in the field. By eliminating the messengers from the 9,000 custodial positions in the District of Columbia, we then had a very fair comparison of the custodial force in the District with those in the field force of the Supervising Architect's office. Mr. BYRNS. Upon which to base the estimate? Mr. BAILEY. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. On that basis of compensation, adding to the $240 bonus, you brought them up to the level of those who were classified? Mr. BAILEY. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. If you had not done that, what would be the effect of your action? Mr. BAILEY. If we had not done that the Budget Bureau estimates would be $760,000 more for the Supervising Architect's Office for 1925. The CHAIRMAN. It would have put the custodial employees in the field on a higher salary basis than the custodial employees within the District? Mr. BAILEY. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. Your work was to substantially place them on the same level? Mr. McREYNOLDS. The same level for the same type of jobs. INCREASE ESTIMATED FOR INTERNAL REVENUE BUREAU, PROHIBITION UNIT AND VETERANS' BUREAU Mr. BAILEY. The estimate of the Veterans' Bureau, the Internal Revenue Bureau, and the Prohibition Unit for the amount required in addition to the base pay and the bonus to bring their field service employees to the classification level of the District of Columbia |