COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS

CLARENCE CANNON, Missouri, Chairman

NATIONAL WAR AGENCIES APPROPRIATION BILL, 1946

HEARINGS CONDUCTED BY THE SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, IN CHARGE OF DEFICIENCY APPROPRIATIONS, MESSRS. CLARENCE CANNON (CHAIRMAN), CLIFTON A. WOODRUM, LOUIS LUDLOW, J. BUELL SNYDER, EMMET O'NEAL, LOUIS C. RABAUT, JED JOHNSON, JOHN TABER, RICHARD B. WIGGLESWORTH, D. LANE POWERS, EVERETT M. DIRKSEN, AND FRANCIS CASE (SERVING TEMPORARILY) ON THE DAYS FOLLOWING, NAMELY: MONDAY, APRIL 23, 1945.

NATIONAL WAR LABOR BOARD

STATEMENTS OF DR. GEORGE W. TAYLOR, CHAIRMAN; LLOYD K. GARRISON, VICE CHAIRMAN; THEODORE W. KHEEL, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR; JESSE FREIDIN, GENERAL COUNSEL AND PUBLIC MEMBER; FRED E. DESMOND, DEPUTY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR; W. R. LITTLE, DIRECTOR, DIVISION OF ADMINISTRATIVE MANAGEMENT; B. M. JOFFE, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, DIVISION OF ADMINISTRATIVE MANAGEMENT; HAROLD BERNHARD, CHIEF, BUDGET AND PLANNING BRANCH; CARROLL R. DAUGHERTY, DIRECTOR, WAGE STABILIZATION DIVISION; ARCHIE ROBINSON, INFORMATION DIRECTOR; PHILIP C. BROWNELL, ASSOCIATE GENERAL COUNSEL; AND H. M. DOUTY, CHIEF, PROGRAM APPRAISAL BRANCH

SALARIES AND EXPENSES

Mr. CANNON. Mr. Chairman, if the members of the committee will turn to the first table, we will include that in the record at this point. (The table referred to is as follows:)

Salaries and Expenses, National War Labor Board, 1945

Regular appropriation, 1945 act..

Supplemental appropriation for 1945

$15, 000, 000

Total appropriation, 1945.

Add: Received by transfer from "Salaries and expenses, Division of
Central Administrative Services".

Deduct: Estimated savings, unobligated balance.

Base for 1946_..

72467-45-rt.1

15, 000, 000

+261, 800 - 290, 988

14, 970, 812

1

Your appropriation for 1945, including transfer from the "Central Administrative Services," was $15,261,800, and your estimate for 1946 is $13,405,000. Apparently there is a decrease of nearly $2,000,000. However, I observe that your 1945 appropriation included $1,259,309 for overtime pay which is not included in your 1946 estimates. There is also a decrease of $663,500 for the Bureau of Labor Statistics and $194,419 for a special project of the Wage and Hour Division, and one or two other minor items.

So when we take into consideration what appears to be a decrease, it is, as a matter of fact, an increase of $551,000 in the estimates for 1946 over the amount allowed for 1945.

As a matter of fact, nearly every unit in this table shows an increase. In view of the fact that the general trend of all other war agencies is downward, I would like to have you, in your discussion, explain why the reverse is true in your estimates for the National War Labor Board.

GENERAL STATEMENT

We would be glad to have a general statement from you, Mr. Chairman, in which you can discuss the features of your work in regard to wage adjustments, settlement of disputes, and the trend of the work load in each category.

Dr. TAYLOR. Mr. Chairman, in looking ahead for our work during the coming year, the obligations that we will have to meet will be substantially the same as during the past year.

WAGE STABILIZATION TASK

First of all, we have a wage stabilization task to carry out. That responsibility the Board derives from the act of Congress of October 2, entitled "An Act to amend the Emergency Price Control Act of 1942," under which the Board has the obligation of passing on all requests for wage increases.

So our work, as we look ahead, still calls for a considerable amount of wage stabilization work under the act as it stands.

SETTLING OF CERTIFIED LABOR DISPUTES

We also have the responsibility for settling labor disputes certified to the War Labor Board by the Secretary of Labor.

The inflow of dispute cases has continued to rise; it has been higher this year than in the previous year, and we anticipate that we will continue to have a considerable burden in resolving labor disputes. This obligation derives from the War Labor Disputes Act, which remains effective until 6 months following the cessation of hostilities, or upon the passage of a joint resolution by Congress.

REASON FOR INCREASES REQUESTED

As to our requested increases: (1) we established an office in Hawaii in response to a request from military and civil authorities in view of the fact that the absence of controls had created a definite inflationary trend. That office has been working very effectively. That covers that item. (2) The next and the biggest increase has to do with the enforcement of the wage stabilization program.

The War Labor Board not only has the responsibility of passing on all requests for increases in wages, but it is also responsible for enforcing the requirements of the wage program. It is our duty to determine when a wage adjustment has been improperly made without the approval of the War Labor Board. This is usually done for the purpose of attracting manpower and is, in effect, a form of black market labor pirating. If the Board finds that such a violation has taken place, it so certifies and the amount of salaries paid in violation will be disallowed as a tax deductible item by the Bureau of Internal Revenue and in connection with contracts with Government procurement agencies.

We accumulated in our various offices a tremendous number of cases involving alleged violations. For the most part these come to us from other employers who have lost their employees.

Our policy with respect to those complaints is to go into each case very thoroughly with representatives of labor and industry. We believe that it is incumbent upon us to clear up those cases now pending so that the employers are in a position to know what, if any, penalties would be required, so they might go ahead and make plans for the future.

The Legal Division is responsible for cleaning up existing claims of improper payment under the act of October 2, 1942, and therefore we are requesting an increase in this Division. It does not involve any extension of the Board's work in that particular at all, but rather the establishment of a staff adequate to handle our current work.

I would like to say, in summary, that we request $13,405,000 for the coming fiscal year. Last year Congress appropriated $15,000,000 for N. W. L. B. and a transfer of $261,800 from C. A. S., a total of $15,261,800. Deducting overtime of $1,231.905, we received net $14,029,895. This amount compared with our 1946 request of $13,405,000 is, as we compute it, $624,895 less than last year's appropriation.

INCREASE IN WORK LOAD

There have been no major organizational changes during the course of the year. We have continued to perform the functions I mentioned, of wage stabilization and adjusting of labor disputes. But our work load of wage and disputes cases has increased sharply.

This might be seen in the following figures. For the year ending April 1, 1945, we received 7,899 dispute cases and we disposed of 7,925, so there has been a decrease there. This should be compared with the previous year.

For the previous year we received 6,543 dispute cases, so our receipts have increased from 6,500 to almost 7,900 during this year. Last year, ending April 1, 1944, we disposed of 5,801 cases or less than we received, while the reverse was true this year. We disposed of over 2,100 more dispute cases this year than last year, or 37 percent