Senator MCCARRAN. I was asking that question with the idea of seeing how much time of one representative of your department is taken up with one case. Mr. TYSON. Yes. Senator MCCARRAN. Or how much time in the general run of cases. Mr. TYSON. I can give you that by tomorrow if that would be satisfactory. Senator MCCARRAN. I do not know that it is essential, but I just wanted to see how fast you would handle that load of 9,000 cases. Mr. TYSON. You can figure we have handled 5,458 so far this year, and we are now 506 behind, so that is approximately 6,000 we would have handled in 9 months. Senator MCCARRAN. How many people are employed in that particular line? Mr. TYSON. Twelve attorneys. Senator MCCARRAN. Twelve attorneys. (The requested is as follows:) A projection for the full year of 5,458 requests for wage determinations in first 9 months. 'Estimated. REGIONAL AND TERRITORIAL OFFICES WORK OF OFFICES Mr. TYSON. Outside of Washington there are at present 13 regional offices and 1 Territorial office. These offices perform legal services in the field for the Department and its bureaus and agencies. Attorneys in these offices initiate wage-hour, child labor, and public contracts legal actions. Although there has been a 496 percent increase in the number of contested legal actions handled in the past 4 years by these attorneys the number of attorneys has been reduced from 98 in fiscal 1943 to 74 in fiscal 1947 or a reduction of 32 percent in the number of attorneys. In those figures there I am giving the figures for the field. We have actually had an increase in trial litigation of 496 percent in contested cases since 1943. ATTORNEYS IN FIELD, 1943 AND AT PRESENT field, or a reduction of 32 percent in the number of attorneys, which We had 98 attorneys in the field in 1943. We now have 74 in the I think will indicate to you that our efficiency is certainly holding up but our backlog accumulating, and that is one of the difficulties that we have and which justifies, we think, the request for additional attor neys in the field. Senator MCCARRAN. Now, what will be the condition if this particular appropriation is passed as it came from the House? Mr. TYSON. I have attempted to explain that explicitly in the next part of my statement. Senator MCCARRAN. All right. VOLUME OF WORK OF ATTORNEYS IN FIELD OFFICES Mr. TYSON. During fiscal 1946, there were referred to the attorneys in the regional offices a total of 2,714 cases for the purpose of legal enforcement action under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the WalshHealey Public Contracts Act, and the child labor provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act. These referrals resulted in the initiation of 469 contested actions plus 188 civil actions initiated which resulted in consent decrees after negotiations. The attorneys were able to dispose of 385 contested cases, yet the backlog of pending contested cases increased 108 to total 392 at the end of the year. In addition, the same attorneys rendered 9,934 written opinions during the year and also analyzed the evidence and rendered written opinions to the administrative officials in connection with 1,211 investigation files. Further, they have rendered many services in their capacity as legal advisers to the regional directors in each region, as well as conducting many conferences with employers, employees, and attorneys for both, in matters pertaining to other than pending cases or matters in litigation. ADDITIONAL FIELD PERSONNEL REQUESTED The request for 1948 is for 20 additional attorneys (4 P-5's, 7 P-4's, 6 P-3's, and 3 P-2's) in the field and for 13 additional stenographers (CAF-3) to perform stenographic services for the new attorneys. This would make a total of 94 attorneys in the field which is still 4 less than we had in 1943 before the tremendous increase in litigation was evident. EFFECT OF HOUSE REDUCTION The $755,300 allowed by the House of Representatives would, of course, necessitate a drastic curtailment in the operations now being performed by the Solicitor's Office. If the increase in salaries permitted Government employees by Public Laws 349 and 390 is taken into consideration, the appropriations available to this office for the years 1941 through 1947 were all greatly in excess of the amount allowed by the House of Representatives for 1948. The cut for 1948 has been made even though the work load for the office has increased substantially since 1941. EXTENT OF REDUCTION IN PERSONNEL UNDER HOUSE CUT In terms of personnel we would be forced under the amount allowed by the House of Representatives to reduce our present staff from 223 employees to 154. This would mean a cut of 35 in the field (19 attorneys and 16 stenographers) and 34 in the Washington office (24 attorneys and 10 stenographers). We would be left with a staff of 55 attorneys and 31 stenographers in the field and 49 attorneys and 19 clerical people in Washington. The 55 attorneys in the field would compare with the 74 we now have in the field and the 98 we had in 1942. The 49 attorneys in Washington would compare with the 73 we have now and the 89 we had in 1942. NUMBER OF REGIONAL OFFICES THAT WOULD BE CLOSED In addition, we would be forced to close 7 of our 13 regional offices. ATTORNEYS WORKING UNDER SPECIFIC ACTS Senator MCCARRAN. Right at that point, I wish to inquire: These attorneys to whom you now may refer, are both in the field and in the Washington office, and as I understand it, and if there is any exception to this, please correct me, carrying out the specific mandates of acts passed by Congress, is that not correct? Mr. TYSON. That is correct. As I say later in this statement, the responsibility which we have is a legal responsibility, placed upon us by the Congress to enforce these statutes which Congress has passed. The Fair Labor Standards Act, the Walsh-Healey Act, the DavisBacon Act, and these other acts which I have mentioned." Senator MCCARRAN. In other words, what I wanted to bring out: This array of attorneys, which might seem formidable to some extent, are not employed simply to carry out some whim or fancy that may arise in the Department of Labor, but are employed specifically to carry out the specific mandates of the Congress of the United States? Mr. TYSON. That is correct, sir. LOCATION OF REGIONAL OFFICES Senator KNOWLAND. Where are your 13 regional offices located? Mr. TYSON. Would you like me to name them? Senator KNOWLAND. Yes. Mr. TYSON. First, we have a Territorial office in San Juan, P. R., and regional offices in Boston; New York; Philadelphia; Richmond: Atlanta; Birmingham; Nashville, Tenn.; Cleveland; Chicago; Minneapolis; Kansas City; Dallas; and San Francisco. QUESTION AS TO CONSOLIDATION OF SOME OF REGIONAL OFFICES Senator KNOWLAND. Are there any of the regional offices which could be consolidated without any loss to the enforcement work of the Bureau due to the proximity to each other? Mr. TYSON. We have maintained offices where the other bureaus of the Department have offices because we have thought legal services should be furnished to that bureau and in each place we have an office, the Wage and Hour Division has an office. Our regions are synonymous. Senator KNOWLAND. I see. So, wherever they have an office, you supply service from the Solicitor's Office? Mr. TYSON. That is correct. Senator MCCARRAN. The San Francisco office serves that entire western territory? Mr. TYSON. Yes, Senator. As a matter of fact, we think we need another office in the western section of the country. The San Francisco office serves Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Utah, and Nevada. You can see that the territory covered by that office is very extensive. We have only five attorneys out there, and if we were to have a case in each State simultaneously we would be completely out of attorneys in our San Francisco office. Travel takes a lot of time out there in going from one place to the other. NUMBER OF CASES HANDLED BY EACH REGIONAL OFFICE Senator KNOWLAND. Could you furnish the committee with any information as to the number of cases handled in each of these regional offices? Mr. TYSON. Yes; I could. (The information is as follows:) |