Virtually all employers studied by NICB pay or vacations fully earned but unused before ntering service. Two-fifths, in addition, grant rorated vacation pay for time earned toward the ext vacation.

Some type of "induction" bonus (above any ccrued vacation pay) is given to employees >aving for military service by almost two in three ompanies reporting in the NICB preliminary arvey. Three-fifths of such employers graduate he amount according to length of service with the ɔmpany.

Less than one in three companies of the BNA urvey give bonuses to employees departing for ilitary service, over and above any unused vacaon pay that may be granted. About a third of lese are graduated to the employee's time with le company. Virtually no differences were reorted as to policy between salaried and hourly mployees. In one out of twelve companies ranting bonuses, such payments at the time of he study were restricted to draftees.

1 The BNA study (Military Leave Policies of 500 Corporations, Washgton 1950) presents data for policies in effect in September and October 50. Its statistics take account of an appreciable number of companies which ported as holding decisions in abeyance at the time on specific practices in lestion. Nearly three-fifths of all companies stated that they dealt with tions on one or more phases of military leave; this impact, however, was it measured for specific policies.

NICB data (in Management Record, Oct. and Nov. 1950) consists of two adies: one based on replies from 180 companies as to military leave and aployee-benefit plans, and an earlier preliminary report covering informa›n from 150 companies primarily on military leave and separation bonus. either survey furnishes material on the influence of union agreements in ese fields. [Since the current article went to press, the National Industrial onference Board has issued a later report-Company Military Leave ›licies, Studies in Personnel Policy, No, 114, March 1951.]

For recent statistics on the number of workers in the United States covered ⚫ negotiated pension, health, and welfare plans, see Employee-Benefit ans under Collective Bargaining, Mid-1950, in Monthly Labor Review, bruary 1951 (p. 156).

The term "benefit plans" is here used to include other programs beyond ose of pensions, health, and welfare, and includes vacation and “induction" nus plans (discussed in this article), as well as profit-sharing and annual nus payments.

Covers inductees, enlistees, and reservists who enter on active duty in the S. Armed Forces, Coast Guard, or U. S. Public Health Service.terans' Reemployment Rights: Question and Answer Handbook, U. S. partment of Labor, Bureau of Veterans' Reemployment Rights, ashington, 1950 (p. 2; see also pp. 8, 46–51).

Selective Service Act of 1948 as amended, Sec. 9 (c) (1).—Ibid. (pp. 76, 79). The BNA study does not furnish data on interim financing of nonconbutory pension plans which grant credit for military-service time.

Of the remaining 21 companies, 18 were undecided and 3 did not reply. 32 companies reached no decision.

This study does not specify the number of companies having hospitalizan and surgical plans.

'In addition, 52 companies reached no decision; 2 did not reply.

As to the general situation, the NICB states: "A great number of the mpanies canceling the coverage report that their insurance carriers either fuse to extend group coverage to employees in service, or have instituted ohibitively high war risk premiums."-Management Record, Nov. 1950 . 410).

Nature of restriction

Women employed between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. may not be required to report for work or be dismissed from work during these hours, unless suitable transportation is available at no extra cost to worker.

Work by women after 12 midnight prohibited.
Work by women prohibited from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Work by women prohibited from 6 p. m. to 6 a. m. Work by women prohibited from 5 p.m. to 8 a.m. in cities of 150,000 population and over and their suburbs; from 5 p.m. to 6 a.m., elsewhere.

If any part of a woman's daily work falls between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m., hours of employment may not exceed 9 a night, 54 a week. (Day-work maximum 10 hours a day, 55 a week.) Work between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. is considered night work except that work 1 night a week after 8 p.m. is not so classified. Maximum for night work, 8 hours a night, 48 a week. (Day-work maximum, 9 hours a day, 50 a week.)

1 Between June 1 and Sept. 15, mercantile establishments in agricultural communities may remain open until 10 p. m. on 1 day in week if permit is obtained from State labor department.

Commissioner of Labor and Industries authorized, after public hearing, to suspend until July 1, 1951, the application or operation of this prohibition. Governor is authorized to suspend this law, on his own order or upon application, in time of war or other serious national emergency.

on more than 1 day in week, her hours may not exceed 8 in any 1 day nor 48 during the entire week. (Day-work maximum, 9 hours a day, 50 a week.)

Law applies to both male and female employees 16 years of age and over. For smaller exchanges, orders of Industrial Commission establish number of hours of employment to be counted as the night shift and also maximum number of work hours permitted. The count varies from 1 hour to 7 hours according to the number of telephones in the exchange, and maximum hours from 10 a day, 60 a week, in the very small exchanges, to 9 a day, 56 a week, in those having between 1,000 and 2,000 telephones.

Railway Labor Act:

Administrative Highlights, 1949-501

THE NUMBER OF THREATENED STRIKES in the transportation industry during the year ending June 30, 1950, exceeded the total of any previous year in the life of the Railway Labor Act, according to the latest annual report of the National Mediation Board.2 The more serious strikes or strike threats were attributed either to disputes involving grievances arising out of existing contracts which had not been referred to the National Railroad Adjustment Board for settlement, as prescribed by the act before threat of a strike was made, or to disputes which involved more than one craft or carrier.3

Many of the threatened strikes were disposed of through efforts of the National Mediation Board; others, however, were not disposed of until after Presidential fact-finding boards had been invoked under the emergency provisions of the act. During the fiscal year 1950, 11 such boards were created to avert threatened strikes (12 in 1949).

Although some of the disputes before the emergency boards involved matters of national concern, the procedures of the Railway Labor Act should have been adequate in other cases, according to the Board, "without the necessity of the President of the United States declaring an emergency."

Provision for Settling Disputes

The amended Railway Labor Act "distinguishes different kinds of disputes, recognizes the differences in the principles which underlie them, and provides different methods and establishes separate agencies for handling the various kinds." The act embodies detailed procedural steps for the peaceful handling of disputes from their origin to their final disposition. Direct negotiation, mediation, arbitration, and Presidential emergency boards are all utilized or are available.

If the National Mediation Board finds it impossible to bring about a settlement of a case by mediation, it endeavors, under the act, to induce the parties to submit to voluntary arbitration. But there is no compulsion on either disputant to

agree to arbitrate. Should arbitration be refused by either party or by both parties, and the dispute remains unsettled and, in the judgment of the Board, threatens substantially to interrupt interstate commerce, the Board must notify the President of the United States. The President may, at his discretion, appoint an emergency board.

The offices of the Board in so-called mediation disputes and those of Presidential fact-finding boards are purely voluntary in nature, under the act. They provide steps for deferring a strike or lockout for a temporary period, however. The principles of negotiation and mediation constitute the heart of the law. Even emergency boards function in a mediatory capacity in some controversies. There is no prohibition in the act against work stoppages by employees after all the procedures under the Railway Labor Act have been exhausted.

On the railroads, disputes involving employee grievances and controversies over the interpretation and application of existing contracts, which cannot be settled by direct conference, are referrable either to local or to system adjustment boards set up by agreement, or to the National Railroad Adjustment Board provided by the act if no local or system boards have been agreed to for that purpose. The decisions of the National Board are binding by law upon both parties. The Board consists of 36 members, 18 selected by the carriers and 18 by the national organizations of railway employees. Each of its four divisions has jurisdiction over disputes involving different crafts or classes of railroad employees. Salaries of members are paid by the parties that select them, but salaries of administrative staff and all other administrative expenses are borne by the Government. If any division cannot agree on an award because of a deadlock, a neutral referee must be selected by the division or appointed by the National Mediation Board, upon request, to sit with the Adjustment Board until a decision is rendered.

Grievance Accumulation, First Division"

The National Railroad Adjustment Board was not able, during the fiscal year 1950, to reduce its backlog of unsettled disputes in the important First Division, despite the recent creation of two

supplemental joint boards (Engineers-Firemen and Conductors-Trainmen) and the adoption of revised procedural rules. The First Division has jurisdiction, under the act, of grievances which involve "operating" employees, i. e., road- and yard-service employees. It is called upon to handle more than four times the number of disputes handled by the other three divisions combined, and has been regularly behind in handling its docket of cases.

During the fiscal year 1950, the First Division docketed 1,766 new disputes and disposed of 1,438 cases, thereby increasing its backlog of unsettled disputes from 2,842 as of July 1, 1949, to 3,170 on June 30, 1950. On the basis of cases disposed, the National Mediation Board estimated that the First Division was more than 2 years behind in its work on June 30, 1950; the estimate was nearly 4 years at the end of the previous fiscal year.

The number of new grievance cases received and docketed annually by the First Division increased by 85 percent in 2 years-from 954 in the fiscal year 1948 to 1,766 in 1950. Total numbers docketed involving trainmen, firemen, engineers, and switchmen had appreciably increased; the largest number of new cases involved trainmen-587 in the fiscal year 1950 alone (see table).

National Railroad Adjustment Board, First Division: Number of cases received and docketed annually, by labor organization, fiscal years ending June 30, 1948, to June 30, 19501