CONTENTS Introduction_. I. Criteria for defining military and civilian jobs- III. Reasons for assignment of military to civilian jobs_ IV. Analysis of position descriptions-Standard form 75- V. Civilian personnel and industrial relations officers___ VI. Military personnel in management engineering activities. 1. Table I-Summary of staff analysis-- 2. Table II-Military ranks and civilian grade assigned. MILITARY PERSONNEL IN CIVILIAN OCCUPATIONS INTRODUCTION THE NECESSITY FOR A STUDY OF MILITARY MANPOWER POLICIES The Department of Defense, together with its Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps components, is the largest single user of manpower in the United States. Over 32 million military personnel are on its rolls, and it employs more than 1,300,000 civilian workers. Of these, 500,000 so-called white collar workers are compensated under the Classification Act of 1949 while the remainder, some 800,000 known as blue collar or wage-board employees, are compensated under prevailing local rates of pay. The duties performed by both categories, while contributing immeasurably to the defense program, are not directly of a military nature, and hence require no particular military skills or background for their successful execution. Among the classified positions will be found clerical, administrative, fiscal, research, engineering design and development and other technical positions, all requiring specific civilian aptitudes and skills. Among the wage-board employees are machinists, mechanics, construction workers, carpenters, painters, and electrical workers, to name a few. As has been said by the Honorable Earl D. Johnson, Assistant Secretary of the Army: As far as the contribution to the national defense is concerned, there is no difference between the man in uniform and the man in civilian clothes. The latter is just as much a part of the organization, and just as important a part, as the man in uniform. In addition to their civilian employees, the armed services assign a substantial number of military personnel to tasks which are essentially civilian in character and which require no military skills in their performance. Because of the definite and known limit on the available manpower of the Nation, every effort must be made to conserve and use it in the most economical manner possible. To put a man in uniform and then use him in the performance of a civilian task defeats this effort. Not only is it a waste of manpower, but it is a waste of money, as will be shown later. The indiscriminate recall of reservists and the drafting of "combat worthy" registrants to be used by the armed services in the performance of civilian tasks cannot be justified. Not only is it an injustice to the man himself, but it is wasteful and harmful to the entire civilian economy. To take the farmer from his fields, the machinist from his lathe, or the corner merchant from his business, and set them to other civilian tasks with which they are frequently unfamiliar creates employment vacuums which must be filled by others. In both cases, performance must usually be preceded by training in the new field. 1 From an address at Stanford University, August 1951. 1 It was but natural, therefore, that the subcommittee, in its examination of manpower utilization within the Government, should closely scrutinize the military department's policies and practices in its assignment of military personnel to civilian type positions. It was realized, of course, that the line of demarcation between military and civilian positions is not always clearly defined and that good reasons might exist for the assignment of military to certain civilian tasks. No attempt was made to include wholly military or combat-type organizations in this study, since their mission predetermined that all positions must be filled by military personnel. Subcommittee inquiries so far have been confined to an analysis of positions in certain Armed Forces establishments within the continental limits of the United States. These might generally be described as permanent or fixed-position facilities, performing manufacturing, housekeeping, procurement, supply, record keeping, and other administrative functions, and where large number of civilians are normally employed for the performance of these routine tasks. Among these establishments will be found certain types of supply depots, ports of embarkation, naval shore establishments, Air Force bases, and various kinds of military headquarters. With very few exceptions, this report deals only with male military personnel who are performing civilian type jobs in the Military Establishment. The enrollment of women by the Armed Forces and their employment in civilian positions has also been a subject for study by the subcommittee. This study will be published as a separate report. Another matter which came to the attention of the subcommittee during its inquiry was the assignment of military personnel to other Government agencies, where they are employed in tasks which are essentially civilian in character, and which require no particular military background or skills. This, too, will be the subject ofa separate report. II. CRITERIA FOR DEFINING MILITARY AND CIVILIAN JOBS Before the subcommittee could determine the extent to which military personnel might be filling civilian-type jobs, it had first to determine what constituted a civilian job and what constituted a military job. Inquiry among the various armed services at the start of the investigation disclosed that only the Marine Corps had established definite criteria to be used as a guide in this determination. The Navy, it is true, had established certain criteria for so-called key positions, as early as August 1950, but they were to be applied only in the event of a general mobilization. The Department of Defense likewise had issued a directive to the services calling for the utmost utilization of civilians, but no attempt was made to define civilian-type jobs. Such criteria when established have several uses. First, they lay down the "rules of the game" by enabling both civilian and military employees to know just which positions and assignments are available to each type of personnel. Second, they give the military services an opportunity to review their manpower needs on a more realistic basis because they are able to have information which indicates personnel requirements in terms of both military and civilian needs. Third, these criteria provide a basis for assuring civilian employees that the Department of Defense recognizes that certain work should be performed by civilians. Fourth, these criteria should prevent the recall of reservists to active duty for other than strictly military assignments, or the drafting of registrants whose services are not needed to fill such assignments. Fifth, such criteria assist both military and civilian personnel officers in making proper personnel assignments, and thus enable them to assign military personnel to military jobs, and civilians to civilian jobs. Following the subcommittee's inquiries into this matter, and possibly as a result thereof, the services have finally initiated action to publish appropriate criteria to assist in the proper allocation of positions. While these criteria in themselves are basically similar, and will no doubt accomplish the purpose for which they are intended, they are only the expressions of policy of the separate services, and as such are subject to change or reversal at any time by the department concerned. In the beginning of its study and in the absence of definite service criteria, except those of the Marine Corps, as referred to above, the subcommittee developed its own guide for determining which positions might ordinarily be filled by civilian personnel, and which required the incumbent to be a military person. These criteria, in the main, are similar to those which were later published by other services and those of the Marine Corps. They are as follows: (a) Do provisions of law require military personnel? (b) Does the job require specific military background and knowledge? (c) Does the job involve security restrictions which would make civilian occupany difficult or impossible? (d) Does the job provide necessary training for future military assignments? (e) Is the location of the job such that civilians are not available? Any positior which can be shown to meet one or more of the criteria is normally a position which can justifiably be occupied by military personnel. Conversely, unless the position can be shown to meet one or more of the foregoing criteria, it should normally be filled by a civilian. II. SCOPE OF INVESTIGATION Having established its criteria, the subcommittee proceeded to collect and analyze data on some 400 positions, which are now occupied by military personnel, both in the Washington area and in the field. Both commissioned and enlisted personnel, representing all of the armed services, were included in this analysis. To obtain this information, the services were requested to submit position descriptions (standard form 75) covering the jobs filled by representative groups of military personnel in 23 military installations. A copy of this form appears in appendix A. The following installations were selected by the subcommittee as being representative of the type of facility where considerable numbers of civilians were employed, or whose work appeared to be largely civilian in its nature. |