Mr. KEEFE. The fact of the matter is that if you say the absenteeism in plant A is 6 percent or 18 percent, or whatever it may be, I cannot look at that figure and say, "Well, what was it a year ago?" can I? Mr. HINRICHS. No. Mr. KEEFE. Because you have no figures available or no statistics available. Mr. HINRICHS. No. Mr. H. CARL ANDERSEN. You can, however, compare it to other plants in the same line of work. Mr. HINRICHS. Yes. Mr. H. CARL ANDERSEN. And that is the purpose of your chart? Mr. HARE. And you will be able to make the comparison next year and the following years, Doctor? Mr. HINRICHS. Yes; that is also correct. It is astonishing how fast figures become historically useful. You get a series of figures and you get a perspective astonishingly quickly. Mr. KEEFE. The thing that is bothering me and the thing I am trying to get clear in my mind has to do with all this critical literature that has gone out and all the speeches about absenteeism. They do not mean very much unless you can relate it to a situation that is worse today than it was last month or 3 months ago or last year. Mr. HINRICHS. Or worse in one plant than it is in another. Mr. KEEFE. Yes. Mr. HINRICHS. Now, on that, I am willing to say, on the basis of our figures, that an absence rate of 22 percent is an absolutely bedrock figure. That was formerly merely a hypothetical standard. Our figures prove that it is a bedrock rate. Mr. KEEFE. That would be expected at any time, would it? Mr. HINRICHS. Well, I cannot imagine getting below it. Actually, your sickness rate ought to produce 22 to 3 percent absenteeism in a large establishment, higher in winter and lower in summer. Our figures show that 10 percent of the wage earners in the manufacturing industries that we covered were employed in establishments that had an absence record of less than 21/2 percent. Now, any time that you can get all of your people to achieve the standard that the best 10 percent are achieving you have got pretty close to perfection. So, as a realistic proposition, I would say that our figures demonstrate conclusively that 22 percent is a bedrock figure. I would go even a little bit higher than that and say that the figure below which are found in 25 percent of the plants which have the best record 32 percent is close to a bedrock figure for absenteeism; and that the average experience of 5 to 52 percent is not anything to be badly frightened about. We know, in comparison with the last war, that absenteeism in shipyards was twice as high as it is in this war. We know there are many factors contributing to absenteeism. When I find a high rate in an establishment it does not mean that the workers are at fault. It proves nothing, except that the rate is high. It means, however, no matter where it is or what it is doing, that there is a loss of manpower which should be reduced, if possible, whether the fault be that of the management, of the workers, or of the community. Now, to come back here to this establishment in the eastern district, No. 13, I am willing to ascribe almost all of that high rate of absenteeism to a perfectly ghastly transportation system and living condi tions which simply cannot be put up with month after month after month. Mr. KEEFE. That is exactly what I am trying to get at; but do your abstract figures as such indicate any such thing? Mr. HINRICHS. All that my figures are designed to do, sir, is to show that in plant 13, which I am willing to identify to the plant manager himself or to any appropriate authority with the permission of the plant manager, there is a rate of absenteeism so high Mr. KEEFE. What is that rate there, for instance, for that particular plant that you have? Mr. HINRICHS. It is 912 percent, and it happens to be a very large plant. Mr. HARE. Do you have information showing the grounds upon which these persons were absent? Mr. HINRICHS. No; we are going to get more information than we now have with respect to cause. Mr. HARE. You do not know whether it was because they were sick or whether it was due to transportation facilities or whether it was due to poor housing facilities? Mr. HINRICHS. We have complete information with reference to the extent of absenteeism. We have partial information with reference to cause. The causes of absenteeism are almost as numerous as the plants in which absenteeism occurs. If you are going to deal with the problem of absenteeism, you are going to deal with it as a local problem. The Bureau of Labor Statistics is never going to solve the problem of absenteeism. The problem of absenteeism is going to be solved by the local plant and union authorities working in cooperation and working in conjunction with qualified people in the Federal Government who can advise them with reference to ways of reducing it. Mr. HARE. Do you not think you could have said just as well and truthfully that it has to be handled by the employers and employees, instead of the union authorities, because do you not think that it is going to be individual instead of collective? Mr. HINRICHS. In every large establishment it is extremely difficult for unorganized employees to bring concerted pressure to bear upon themselves. There is some possibility of it, but I think that even there it will be done through some local association of the employees. But it is a job for management and the workers, however the thing is done. Actually, the unions are being extremely helpful. Mr. HARE. I imagine they would be. Mr. HINRICHS. Actually they are sometimes too drastic in their enthusiasm to hit it on the head. That, in general, indicates the scope of the aircraft utilization program which, as I say, has already been approved for this year in connection with the first deficiency appropriation, approved to the full amount requested on an annual basis for this next year. Mr. KEEFE. Doctor, let me ask you this. Do you make any spot checks in connection with this absenteeism study by which you could go out into a plant and actually determine, in a spot check, what is the cause of the absenteeism in a particular plant, so that you would be able to develop any figures that would be worth while as to the real causes of it? I do not see how you are going to deal with the problem of absenteeism unless you thoroughly and honestly know what the causes of it are. Giving the figures is helpful, but it does not go very far in the solution of the problem. Mr. HINRICHS. The figures are simply the first step. The next step is the determination of the cause in the locality. Mr. KEEFE. Do you propose to do that in connection with the funds that are being asked for here? Mr. HINRICHS. On a limited basis, in connection with aircraft and aircraft alone, on the funds that are being requested here. Mr. HARE. That is included in the $37,000? Mr. HINRICHS. Yes. We have just been asked by the Air Corps to extend our work on cause, and it will be provided for within this appropriation. Mr. KEEFE. How do you propose to do that very thing? Mr. HINRICHS. By local interview; and the method that we have found most successful in application so far has been to work out a program with the management and the union, who are commonly interested in the problem, as to how they can determine the cause of absenteeism and can put their records on a basis which will be more or less comparable to records which are being prepared in other establishments. It is not a job which can be well done by questionnaire, nor a job which can be well done by a Federal agent, except in an advisory capacity, and subsequently in analyzing the results of a study. Mr. KEEFE. Let me ask you a further question, because I am considerably interested in this very problem. It has been stated repeatedly, and I have observed it in a number of plants, that one section or department might be laid off. They might be told not to come to work for a couple of days, due to lack of materials. Would those cards be classed, in your determination of statistics, as absenteeism? Mr. HINRICHS. No. Mr. KEEFE. How do you differentiate them? Mr. HINRICHS. They would be included only in violation of our instructions, which are that they are not to include the lay-offs. Now, at the present time we are collecting statistics on a voluntary basis. There are various measures pending in Congress suggesting that the Bureau of Labor Statistics should collect those reports in a more formalized manner, in which case we will insist that lay-offs shall not be included and will spot check to make sure that they are not. Our instruction is that a lay-off is a man not scheduled for work, and the reports that we are receiving indicate that people are following our instructions very definitely. They definitely report a smaller number of people scheduled for work on Saturday and Sunday than on the various weekdays, for example. There are differences in the number of workers scheduled to work on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. So it looks as though the form we had devised, which is a simple one, geared absolutely to the records that every manufacturer keeps, is producing, within its limitations, good results and furnishing a basis for further work. They are not the total answer. They are simply a good, over-all beginning. Mr. KEEFE. After all is said and done, Doctor, assuming that I am an employer employing a large number of people-unfortunately 86811-43-pt. 1-14 or fortunately I am not, but we will assume that-the statistical information which you might give me indicating the rate of absenteeism in my plant as compared to the rate of absenteeism in similar plants engaged in the same industry would be helpful to me in determining whether or not I have an extraordinary rate of absenteeism in my own plant? Mr. HINRICHS. Correct. Mr. KEEFE. And which would stimulate me, as an employer, then, to take action and endeavor to find out what the cause is, if I have an unusual rate of absenteeism; whereas, if I find that I am down to approaching the bedrock base minimum of absenteeism, I then can proceed, as you have indicated, with other problems in connection with my industry, with assurance that this talk about absenteeism is a lot of bunk, and that, so far as my plant is concerned, there are no more absences than would be normally expected at any time in the operation of that plant from the usual hazards which cause absences in industry. Is that a fair statement? Mr. HINRICHS. It is an ideal statement, because if you are a manufacturer, I am not trying to solve your problem, because I cannot. I am trying to help you solve your own problem. When you wrote to me that you had a 3-percent absence rate and you were scared stiff and thought it was high, I wrote a letter to you reassuring you as best I could and furnishing comparable information which showed where you stood. When you wrote me and said you had an absence rate of 18 percent and were not worried about it, I did not regard it my function to say, "You ought to be scared stiff," but I did send along a chart showing the whole record of the industry, with a check mark against your plant, and said, "That is where you stand with reference to other people." The causes of absenteeism are varied and local. Your statement of what we are trying to do is a better one than I have been able to make. I am simply trying to be helpful to you as a manufacturer. Mr. KEEFE. How long do you think it would be before you would have spot checks completed that would enable you with some degree of certainty to segregate or break down this question of absenteeism into voluntary and involuntary absenteeism, and so on? Do you get what I mean? Mr. HINRICHS. I can throw significant light on the causes of absence within a 90-day period, provided I have funds for the work. Mr. HARE. Doctor, we would like to finish this item. There is an amount of $37,000 requested for aircraft plant utilization, and there is a request for $169,020 for a survey of wartime prices, including industrial prices and consumers' prices. There is a request for $101,980 for tenant rent survey, and a request of $55,000 for cost of living, territories. ADDITIONAL PERSONNEL FOR AIRCRAFT PLANT UTILIZATION STUDIES Do I understand that you have 18 employees for the aircraft plant utilization work and 61.2 for survey of wartime prices? In other words, how many additional employees are you requesting for this supplemental estimate of $258,478? Mr. HINRICHS. 121.6. Mr. KEEFE. Is that man-years, again? Mr. HINRICHS. Man-years. Mr. HARE. That will be 121 employees for the year? Mr. HINRICHS. That is correct. Mr. HARE. I can understand that. I do not understand man-hours or man-years, but if you say a man is working a year I know what you are driving at. Mr. KEEFE. They have six-tenths of a man there. Mr. HARE. Yes. I see that. Mr. KEEFE. Six-tenths of a year. Mr. HINRICHS. There are already 67 of those employees on our present supplemental appropriation and there will be more than that before the year is over. Mr. HARE. Where did you get the funds for the employing of these 67 already employed? Mr. HINRICHS. In the first deficiency appropriation. There was in that bill an item of $12,300 and $51,000, a total of $63,300 as supplemental for this year. SURVEY OF WARTIME PRICES In connection with the item of $169,020 for "Wartime Prices" and $101,980 for the "Tenant Rent Survey," I think that those items can best be understood if I can describe rather briefly the kind of work that we are doing in the Price Branch, which is the third of the branches of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the problems that we are encountering at the present time in maintaining an adequate price series. Mr. KEEFE. You are doing this for whom? For whom do you do this work? Mr. HINRICHS. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has been the official agency of the Federal Government. Mr. KEEFE. I know that, Doctor, but for whom are you doing this particular work here? Is this all the work or is this just an addition to your regular work? Mr. HINRICHS. This represents necessary developments of our regular work if we are going to have price series which can be used by the O. P. A., by the War Production Board, by the War Labor Board, by the President, and by the Congress in interpreting what is going on in the field of prices and the cost of living. You can rather readily appreciate the problems which we are up against in a situation that is totally new with respect to the markets. Goods are disappearing. Substitutes are being offered. Manufacturers who used to supply us with price quotations are no longer making the articles on which they furnished prices. We have to go out and find people who are currently making those items. When the production of stoves was concentrated, for example, we had had stoves in our wholesale price index. There was not a single manufacturer who had reported the price who remains in the stove business. We had to collect stove prices from those people who were currently engaged in the manufacture of stoves. We had to substitute goods in the cost of living index. Silk stockings were no longer available. We had to substitute rayon. Rationing has come along, and we have had to change the weights of our items to take into account what people are going to buy. The meat and fat rationing program and the rationing of canned goods |