in the statement to which you refer Mr. Watt referred primarily to our relations with the Director of Economic Stabilization. Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. He mentioned six or eight steps that the labor organization had to go through many times before it could hope to get a judgment on the matter. Dr. TAYLOR. I think that what he had in mind was the fact that our awards when we issue a wage adjustment which would furnish the basis for a price increase, can become effective only upon approval of the Director of Economic Stabilization, which is a matter of procedure which has been prescribed for us and which we accept. I think it is on that score primarily that Mr. Watt, as well as some of the other labor members, was complaining about the duplication and matters of that sort. Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. You do not know of any real change that had been made in the over-all picture since that time? Dr. TAYLOR. You mean, in our relations with the Director? Dr. TAYLOR. No; I do not know of any particular change that has been made in that system. Mr. KHEEL. I think that in working with other agencies our relations have tended to become clarified during the course of the year, and we have not any serious difficulty with other agencies of government at the present time. Dr. TAYLOR. That is right. If you mean, do we find that our work is impeded by the activities of these other organizations, it is not impeded in its effectiveness at all. Mr. TABER. But Mr. Steelman got out of the Conciliation Service in the Labor Department because the activities of the other agencies he felt, as I understood it, were so hampering his work that he was unable to make headway. As I remember it-I may be wrongyour agency was one of the agencies that he referred to at that time in his testimony. Dr. TAYLOR. Mr. Steelman, you mean? Mr. TABER. Yes. Dr. TAYLOR. I do not believe this is correct. I would like to say this. I think there is a great deal of collective bargaining going on around the country, and I think the Conciliation Service is really doing a great work. The fact that we have 8,000 cases indicates a pretty heavy load, but there are many more than that arising in this country in the course of a year. So that there is a great deal of collective bargaining going on and a great number of those disputes are being settled by the Conciliation Service. We simply would not be able to carry on were it not doing a job of that_sort. Mr. GARRISON. My recollection is that they handled something over 100,000 disputes, of which we got eight or nine thousand. Dr. TAYLOR. We got eight or nine thousand of the difficult ones, and the others were handled very effectively before the Conciliation Service. BASIS OF AUTHORITY OF NATIONAL WAR LABOR BOARD Mr. TABER. Your authority is based largely on the Smith-Connally Act, is it not? Dr. TAYLOR. In dispute cases, yes; that is correct. Mr. TABER. The other items of authority flow from what? Dr. TAYLOR. From the so-called Economic Stabilization Act of October 2, 1942, which embodied the wage stabilization provisions. It was under that act that Executive Order 9250 and Executive Order 9328 were issued which specified the Board's authority pursuant to the October 2, 1942, act. There have been other Executive orders, but those are the two main ones. Mr. TABER. Under what authority were you authorized to set up regional offices? Dr. TAYLOR. As I recall it, when the Board got this tremendous job of acting upon voluntary and dispute cases on October 2, 1942, we had, as I recall it, 189 employees at that time, and it obviously became necessary for the Board to increase its staff to meet this added load. We felt that it ought to be handled in the regions to the fullest possible extent, and we felt that the local folks could more expeditiously handle the matter. Mr. KHEEL. I believe that at that time the additional personnel was authorized under the President's emergency budget; and then in the spring of 1943 specific appropriation to cover our regional boards was authorized by Congress. NUMBER OF CASES DISPOSED OF Mr. TABER. I would like to have you tell me how many of these stabilization cases you got rid of in the first 9 months of last year. Dr. TAYLOR. I have the figure here for just the last fiscal year. Mr. KHEEL. It runs from April to April. Dr. TAYLOR. We disposed of 197,150 cases. Mr. TABER. And they are the same type of cases which you have pending, 15,429 of them? Dr. TAYLOR. Yes; that is correct. Mr. TABER. In the Disputes Division you disposed of how many? Dr. TAYLOR. We disposed in the 12-month period referred to of 7,925. Mr. TABER. So that the average time ought to be approximately 1 month for the noncontroversial items? Dr. TAYLOR. The trend is downward. We have it down to about 3/21⁄2 weeks now. Mr. TABER. And as to your dispute items perhaps an average of 4 or 5 months? Dr. TAYLOR. Twelve weeks it is now. It was 4 or 5 months the last time we appeared before you. It is now down to about 12 weeks. INCREASE OF PERSONNEL IN DISPUTES DIVISION Mr. TABER. You have built up your Disputes Division some, I suspect, in that time? Dr. TAYLOR. Fourteen positions has been the increase in that period. Mr. TABER. How about your stabilization set-up? I do not know whether that has increased or not; I cannot make it out from this. Dr. TAYLOR. There are 13 man-years less, requested as a matter of fact. Mr. TABER. That is man-years; but you have 30 positions more, according to the way this is set up. Dr. TAYLOR. In the 1945 appropriation column for positions there were authorized 853. In the 1946 base position column we indicate we are using only 840 positions currently. This is less by 13 positions and 2.6 man-years, than we expected to need. In the 1946 estimate we are requesting 30 more positions, although we estimated we will actually use 13.1 man-years less in 1946 than we expect to use this year as shown in the 1946 base column. INCREASE FOR DIVISION OF ADMINISTRATIVE MANAGEMENT Mr. TABER. There is another thing that I would like to have you discuss some. Here is your Division of Administrative Management, 509 in 1945, and in the base for 1946 you have 675. That means an ncrease of 170 in positions, and in man-years there is an increase of 113. Why do you have such a whale of an increase as that? You have better than 25 percent of your help in the overhead. ke that is crowding us up a little bit too much. It seems Mr. KHEEL. Of course the increase has to do primarily with the discontinuance of the C. A. S. Mr. TABER. That did not do much anyhow, except to take up time. Mr. DESMOND. The transfer there involves the shift over of the C. A. S. personnel to our offices throughout the country to carry on what they formerly did in the fields of finance, procurement, duplirating, and other services. We had 509 in 1945, and we have 675 positions provided for in the base, but it is anticipated that we will e647 positions. There is & reduction proposed there from what We are presently using. Mr. TABER. Even so, that is an awfully big figure in comparison with the total number of employees, and an awfully big percentage for overhead. Mr. DESMOND. That is true if it is considered as just relating to mekeeping and pay-roll personnel. Mr. TABER. And operating telephones, and such like? Mr. DESMOND. Yes, sir. In addition to that, our administrative Eces also are the central file section and the statistical reporting ices for the entire Board, and we feel that that is a more efficient ay of using our personnel for the substantive phases of the Board Mr. KHEEL. It also includes stenographers in our stenographic pool. Mr. TABER. How many of them? Mr. KHEEL. They are distributed throughout the country. I think ere in Washington we have approximately 25. Mr. TABER. Twenty-five all together? Mr. KHEEL. In the pool, from which people draw. Mr. TABER. They are given regular assignments? Mr. KHEEL. Yes. And in each of our regional offices we have a ol, a smaller number, of course, which are again assigned to the Administrative Division. That, together with the work which in ality is of substantive nature, such as case controls for disputes, Tage stabilization, and legal divisions accounts for a substantial numr of personnel in the Division of Administrative Management. Mr. TABER. Do you have anything more to say about why you ould have such an enormous percentage of this group on the adminisrative roll? Mr. KHEEL. I would like to submit for the record, Mr. Taber, if you would care to have it, a summary of what work is performed by the Administrative Management Division. Mr. TABER. I shall be glad to have you do that. But if you can tell us in a few words it would perhaps be a little bit better. (The statement requested is as follows:) DIVISION OF ADMINISTRATIVE MANAGEMENT The Division's tasks are manifold. The foremost is the assistance to the operating divisions in order to enable the latter to process their respective work loads under conditions of the greatest possible speed and efficiency. Specifically such assistance on the part of the Division of Administrative Management consists of the following: (1) In cooperation with the operating divisions to prepare, analyze and present their plans and budgets, including their work-load data, the number and type of personnel needed to dispose of such work load, estimate of other-than-personnel needs, and allocation of funds and facilities to meet all the foregoing needs; (2) The selection, training, classification, and assignment of personnel; (3) The development and issuance of operating procedures; (4) Record control of the several types of cases processed by the Board and its agencies; (5) Devising and maintenance of statistical reporting systems, indicating the quantitative effectiveness of the Board and its agents in terms of case intake and d'sposition. The statistical data are further utilized to evaluate and to improve the activities of such of the Board's agents as may from time to time fall below the productivity standards attained nationally by the Board; (6) Maintenance of all required fiscal operations necessary to the operation of Federal agencies; and (7) Procurement of all space, equipment, supplies, duplicating, and simila services required for the efficient operation of the national, regional, and terri torial boards and the several industry commissions. These functions are carried on by the departmental and regional divisions of administrative management under the direction of the National Director o Administrative Management. Since November 1, 1944, the fiscal functions formerly performed by Centra Administrative Services have been transferred to the constituert agencies. These responsibilities include the preparation, audit, and reports of ray rolls, travel and miscellaneous vouchers. It maintains allotment and distribution records and ledgers and liaison with other Government fiscal agencies on fiscal matters In addition, the functions of procurement, distribution, and sterographic report ing, chauffeur, and first-aid services, formerly performed by Central Adminis trative Services, have been transferred to this agency. A detailed description of the activities of the Division of Administrativ Maragement, both in Washington and in the field, will be found on pages 36 to 4 and 65 to 66 in the justifications of our 1946 estimates. Mr. KHEEL. Perhaps I might ask Mr. Little, who is the directo of our Administrative Management Division, to describe to you in few words what his Division performed. Mr. LITTLE. For one thing, we received by transfer from C. A. S as directed by Congress approximately 150 positions. That o course built up the total positions from the number approved in ou 1945 appropriation. Then, in addition, the Division of Administra tive Management, being responsible for all record control, has a grea job in keeping the status location of all cases. As has been brough out here several times, our case load for this past year has increase tremendously, and with that increase we have had to increase th number of positions. This involves a lesser grade. I do not know of any other agency other than the War Labor Board that has th same function of case control in the Division of Administrative Mar agement. I think that does account for the greater number i Administrative Management as confared with some of the othe agencies. The Central Administrative Services, upon closing did turn over a good deal of fiscal, procurement, distribution, and other types of work, and that will account for the difference there. Mr. TABER. When did they disgorge? Mr. LITTLE. November 1 is when we assumed the responsibility. Mr. TABER. As of that date how many people did you have on your roll? Mr. LITTLE. We had as of that date-I could not tell you the exact number-be we received as of that date——— Mr. TABER. You are going to put that into the record? Mr. LITTLE. Yes, sir. We surely will. Mr. TABER. And you have how many right now? Mr. LITTLE. We will give you the exact figure for the record. (The information is as follows:) Number of employees on pay roll Prior to assumption of Central Administrative Services activities Nov. 1. 2, 376 On pay roll Mar. 31.- 2, 523 Mr. TABER. The base difference was 509, and when they disgorged you had 509, according to this basis? Mr. LITTLE. Yes, sir. Mr. TABER. And you kind of "hunched" a little, about 25, and you got up to 675. You increased the 150 that they gave you up to 175. How about that? Mr. LITTLE. There were additional functions that we took over which C. A. S. had performed and for which personnel was not provided. Some of those positions were turned over to Treasury and to the Public Buildings Administration. We had to provide personnel for distribution, procurement, duplicating, and first aid. Mr. TABER. I think that is all I have to ask at the moment. REDUCTION IN ESTIMATES FOR 1946 Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. As I understand it, your over-all request is $13,405,000. What is the comparable figure for 1945? Mr. KHEEL. The comparable figure would be $14,029,895. That Includes C. A. S., but it excludes overtime which is not included in our irrent request. Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. You have at page 1 a total for your 1946 base of $14,970,000, and included in that is overtime of $1,259,000. If you ake that out, according to my figures it gives you $13,711,000. Mr. KHEEL. That is right. Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. That would be the comparable figure, would .* not? Mr. KHEEL. And $261,800 from C. A. S. Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. You are asking $306,000 less than your 1946 Pase, according to my figuring. Is that correct? Mr. KHEEL. Your figuring is correct, but it does not include an Simated saving of $290,988 which, if added to it, would give a figure Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. Where does that appear? Mr. JOFFE. At the top of the sheet, "Estimated savings." 72467-453 |