Captain WATROUS. The request from the field activities was for 74 employees, but S. and A. in its estimates reduced it to 51. Mr. UMSTEAD. Generally, what kind of work would these employees be engaged in? Admiral CONARD. It is the usual distribution in storehouse, accounting, and disbursing departments. Mr. UMSTEAD. Approximately what is the pay range? Commander HULLFISH. From $1,260 to $2,000. Most of them about $1.620. Mr. UMSTEAD. Have you a statement showing the distribution of those employees, the manner in which you propose to divide this additional personnel among the different naval establishments! Admiral CONARD. Yes, sir; the distribution is as follows: The next factor is accumulation of annual leave due to the de mands for services which have prevented granting leave as it accruesservices of temporary employees. This increase in group IVb labor is made necessary to enable ti liquidation of accumulated leave. Reports have been received show ing that there has accumulated from 13 to 35 days' leave per capit with the largest activities showing an average accumulation of i days. With the required work load, leave cannot be granted a earned in all cases, nor can the accumulations be absorbed entirel vithout hiring additional labor to permit the work to go on. The mount requested is 2.42 percent of the total allocated for this purose in 1938, and would cover about 7 days' leave for the entire force. POLICY OF DEPARTMENT AS TO LEAVE Mr. UMSTEAD. Admiral, is it the policy of the Navy Department o allow employees to accumulate leave? Admiral CONARD. It is not the policy, but it is necessarily the pracice, as due to the rapidly expanding Navy the work load has inreased beyond the ability of the funds available to provide sufficient employees to perform necessary work and grant leave as earned. Mr. UMSTEAD. Is it the policy or the practice of the Navy Departnent to hire temporary employees to do the work of regular employees on leave? Admiral CONARD. Only partially. In cases of small establishments it is necessary. Mr. UMSTEAD. Where you undertake to regulate the leave of regular employees so as to avoid the need to hire temporary employees do you have any difficulty staggering the leave? Admiral CONARD. Yes; as we have an insufficient number of employees to carry on in a proper way. Ordinarily, the estimate of the number of employees required at a given station contemplates that there will be a certain proportion of them on leave throughout the year. LABOR, SKILLED AND UNSKILLED, OTHER THAN CLASSIFIED Labor other than classified is employed not only in the routine operations of the navy yards, but in connection with inspection of food, and packing and handling of household effects. The increases requested are as follows: Additional labor to carry increased load at yards and stations due to increases in size of ships and number of aircraft in service (p. M-40) $4,000 Additional labor to pack, crate, and handle household effects of officers, nurses, and certain classes of enlisted men in yards and stations, due to the increase in the numbers entitled to such packing from 29,370 in 1937 to 34,332 in 1939 (M-49 and M-48) – – Hare of additional labor to permit the performance of work deferred from 1938 to keep within the allocations for the year, and to allow accumulated leave to be taken (p. M-40) -- Total____ 9.530 94.385 107, 915 Mr. PLUMLEY. Was that work deferred by reason of insufficient appropriation? Admiral CONARD. Precisely. The first item. $4,000, labor, skilled and unskilled, is required in direct proportion to the volume of stores to be handled. A study of the requests from yards and stations indicates that an increase of at least $4,000 will be needed to meet the trend indicated above. Mr. PLUMLEY. How was the item of $4,000 increase arrived at? Admiral CONARD. By taking the requests from all over the field for additional labor allotments, and scaling it down to what we thought was a reasonable amount to ask for. The increase in skilled and unskilled labor is due in approximately equal proportion to accumulated leave and to hire of additional labor to perform work deferred due to the necessity for curtailment of ac tivity in order to keep within the allocations for 1937 and 1938. That is estimated at $94,385. The item of $9,530 covers labor in navy yards and stations in connection with the packing, crating, and handling of the household effects of officers, nurses, chief petty officers, and petty officers, first class. In 1937 there were 29,370 persons entitled to this service, and the yards report 4,849 lots packed and handled by yard labor at a cost of $131,944, average $27.21. On the same basis, with 34,332 persons entitled to this packing in 1939, it is estimated there will be 5,668 lots packed in navy yards at a cost of $154,226. This exceeds the 1938 committee allocation of $144,696 by $9,530. Mr. UMSTEAD. Why do you estimate that 4.962 more persons will be entitled to the packing privilege in 1939 than were so entitled in 1937? Admiral CONARD. Because of the increase in personnel who move about from place to place; the increase in officers and personnel in the Navy. Mr. UMSTEAD. But the figure of increase you give there is almost as great as the entire increase in the officer and enlisted personnel in the Navy during the year. Commander HULLFISH. There was a change in the division by grades. We put more men in the upper pay grades. It is the officer and the men in the first two pay grades who are entitled to this crating and transportation of household effects. Mr. UMSTEAD. Your distribution for 1939 is practically the same as for 1938, as disclosed in the hearings on Saturday of last week. Commander HULLFISH. That is true. The percentages were the same, but in 1938 the percentage of petty officers, first class, was increased from 1.200 to 1.395. This alone increased the numbers 1,881, and the balance of the increase is due to the increased personnel from 1937 to 1939. Mr. PLUMLEY. In connection with this matter of distribution, is it fair to assume that the expense incident to this item is maintained at about an average cost with or without respect or regard to distribution, or will that increase as the years go by? Will officers who become entitled to more pay have an effect upon this particular project in the years to come, and will this grow or will it stabilize somewhere along the line? Admiral CONARD. This is an expense involved in the transportation of officers and enlisted men from point to point. As the number of officers and enlisted men in the Navy increases, this particular expense moves with it almost in steady proportion. Mr. PLUMLEY. It goes higher and higher? Captain WATROUS. It will continue to go higher as the size of the Navy increases. There is only an increase from 4.849 lots to 5,668 lots. That is not disproportionate, I think, considering the increase in the personnel of the Navy. Mr. UMSTEAD. Did I understand you to say that there were only two grades of enlisted men entitled to packing and crating? Captain WATROUS. Chief petty officers and petty officers first class. all officers and nurses. Mг. THOM. This item of $94.385 is to permit the performance of work deferred from 1938? Admiral CONARD. Yes; deferred from 1938 to keep within the allotions made for that year, and we are now asking for this amount order that it can be performed in 1939. Mr. UMSTEAD. Again it appears the leave law has a bearing upon is proposition? Admiral CONARD. It is very closely associated with the leave law. he leave law affects every item involving pay for personal services. TRANSFER OF APPROPRIATIONS Mr. UMSTEAD. As I understand it, Admiral, the Navy Department as a right, within the limits of an appropriation, to make certain ansfers from one activity within a bureau to another within that reau? Admiral CONARD. We have the right to transfer from one subhead o another within the same appropriation, when an item of expendire is not specifically limited." Mr. UMSTEAD. Rather than permit a deficit to occur, as you have st indicated, why did you not handle it by a transfer of funds from ome other project? Admiral CONARD. As far as possible, we did that very thing, but we had an inadequate appropriation to draw on to expand or carry ut these activities. Mr. UMSTEAD. You say in your justification this increase is necesary, in part, to hire labor to perform work deferred because of the ack of sufficient funds during 1937 and 1938. Is that work still to be one? Admiral CONARD. A large part of it is still to be done. Mr. UMSTEAD. What kind of work is there in your Bureau which, f deferred for 2 years, must then be done? Admiral CONARD. The preservation of stores which need attention o keep them up in proper shape, such as boiler tubes. Mr. UMSTEAD. How long, ordinarily, do you keep boiler tubes in tock without turn-over? Captain WATROUS. That is very spasmodic. Boiler tubes are one item that may be maintained in stock for years. They cannot be procured commercially in the market. They must be right at hand when a tube is necessary. It is dependent, to a great extent, on the asualties to boilers. Admiral CONARD. The allocation of the stock and shifting of the stock around to make better storage is deferred because we have not the money to carry it out, and there is a great variety of work which, when we have not the funds, we simply let rest. Captain WATROUS. There are inventories that should be taken, and bor is involved in assembling and packing material that is due for hipment, and it is necessary to defer a great many shipments on account of that. Mr. PLUMLEY. When you say "defer shipments," what do you mean by that? Captain WATROUs. Defer them until the following fiscal year when Lew money becomes available to make the shipment. Admiral CONARD. Toward the end of the fiscal year when we find the money is absolutely used up, we simply delay as far as we can any shipment's until the beginning of the next fiscal year, and then they can go out. Mr. THOM. What kind of shipments? Admiral CONARD. Stores for ships and household effects and things of that sort. Mr. THOм. You cannot very well delay shipping an officer's household effects. Captain WATROUS. We do it. Admiral CONARD. We have to do it. Commander HULLFISH. We do it as little as we can, because we have taken money from other things for that purpose. Captain WATROUS. The stocks of supplies for the west coast largely come from east-coast distributing points, and those are held up. Mr. PLUMLEY. If Mare Island, for instance, makes a request for material and you have not the money to ship it out, you do not send it? Captain WATROUS. We would send them enough to keep them going, and defer the bulk of it in a case of that sort. MATERIALS AND SERVICES AT SHORE STATIONS Admiral CONARD. Project 3. The increases in this item fall under seven heads, as follows: 1. Initial outfit of consumable supplies for naval air station, Alameda, Calif. (p. M-41) _. 2. Additional requirements of yards and stations to perform increased work on account of increased size of ships and numbers of aircraft (p. M-41). 3. Increased cost of food inspection by Department of Agriculture. Appropriation for 1938 was $83,640; actual expenditures in 1937 were $87,533.09; rounded off to $87,000, the increase required for 1939 is (p. M-49). 4. Increased cost of material to pack and crate household effects in 1939 based on 34,332 persons entitled to shipment in 1939 instead of 32,860 in 1938 (p. M-50)__ 5. Increased cost of contract stevedoring for 1939 shipments (p. M−50) –. 6. Additional office and storehouse equipment necessary because of growth of shore activities to meet the needs of the growing fleet and to permit an adequate program of replacement (pp. M-52 and M-53). 7. Increase necessary to bring replacement of office and storehouse equipment up to date so as to keep future annual replacements within the limits of an orderly program (p. M-54). Total. $500 10.112 3,3 11.40 14. 677 20,000 100,000 160,049 INITIAL OUTFIT OF CONSUMABLE SUPPLIES FOR NAVAL AIR STATION, ALAMEDA, CALIF Mr. UMSTEAD. How many of the 10 employees you are requesting for Alameda will be needed to handle $500 worth of supplies? Admiral CONARD. The sum of $500 is for supplies to be used in the doing of the work at Alameda. It is not stores that are handled, b the supplies to carry on the clerical work and to pack, ship, and so forth, during that year. The increases in this project are materials which closely paralle the increases for labor described in the previous project, except for the third item. CONSUMABLE SUPPLIES An increase of $10.112 for consumable supplies is based on requests from yards and stations and is considered reasonable, being but 234 percent, whereas the volume of business will be increased by more than 5 percent. The $500 increase we have already explained. |