PROVIDING FOR PROMOTION OF EMPLOYEES IN CUSTOMS FIELD SERVICE JULY 23, 1937.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed Mr. McCORMACK, from the Committee on Ways and Means, submitted the following REPORT [To accompany H. R. 7948] The Committee on Ways and Means, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 7948) providing for the promotion of employees in the Customs Field Service, having considered the same, report thereon without amendment and recommend that the bill do pass. GENERAL STATEMENT The provisions of this bill seek only to accord simple justice to loyal and efficient employees in the Customs Field Service of the Government by providing: First, a new range of salaries for laborers to place them on a par with those serving in the Postal Service; second by extending the range of salaries of clerks now classified under the act of May 29, 1928, as amended (U. S. C., 1934 ed., title 19), two additional steps to a maximum of $2,300, thus giving this grade the number of steps now provided for practically all other grades; third, by applying the principle of automatic promotion by annual increments to the maximum salaries of their respective grades, to all positions in the Customs Field Service with the exception of one group of positions provided for in section 3 having to do with inspectors. During the hearings conducted by a subcommittee of the Ways and Means Committee on June 22, 23, and 29, 1937, it was clearly shown, and admitted by the Treasury Department, that the disparity between the salaries paid employees in the Customs Service and those in the Immigration Service, due to the fact that the immigration inspectors enjoy automatic promotion under the act of May 29, 1928, was seriously undermining the morale of those engaged in this most important work. H. Repts., 75-1, vol. 3—15 PROVIDING FOR PROMOTION OF EMPLOYEES IN CUSTOMS FIELD SERVICE JULY 23, 1937.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed Mr. McCORMACK, from the Committee on Ways and Means, submitted the following REPORT [To accompany H. R. 7948] The Committee on Ways and Means, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 7948) providing for the promotion of employees in the Customs Field Service, having considered the same, report thereon without amendment and recommend that the bill do pass. GENERAL STATEMENT The provisions of this bill seek only to accord simple justice to loyal and efficient employees in the Customs Field Service of the Government by providing: First, a new range of salaries for laborers to place them on a par with those serving in the Postal Service; second by extending the range of salaries of clerks now classified under the act of May 29, 1928, as amended (U. S. C., 1934 ed., title 19), two additional steps to a maximum of $2,300, thus giving this grade the number of steps now provided for practically all other grades; third, by applying the principle of automatic promotion by annual increments to the maximum salaries of their respective grades, to all positions in the Customs Field Service with the exception of one group of positions provided for in section 3 having to do with inspectors. During the hearings conducted by a subcommittee of the Ways and Means Committee on June 22, 23, and 29, 1937, it was clearly shown, and admitted by the Treasury Department, that the disparity between the salaries paid employees in the Customs Service and those in the Immigration Service, due to the fact that the immigration inspectors enjoy automatic promotion under the act of May 29, 1928, was seriously undermining the morale of those engaged in this most important work. H. Repts., 75-1, vol. 3—15 In this connection attention is directed to the letter addressed to Hon. R. L. Doughton, chairman, Committee on Ways and Means, by Roswell Magill, Acting Secretary of the Treasury, under date of May 18, 1937, reading as follows: Hon. R. L. DOUGHTON, Chairman, Committee on Ways and Means, TREASURY DEPARTMENT, House of Representatives. MY DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: Receipt is acknowledged of your letter of April 15, 1935, requesting a report on H. R. 3, a bill providing for the promotion of employees in the customs field service. The bill provides for the annual promotion of one step in the grade of all employees who have rendered satisfactory service until the average of the grade is reached, with the exception of those employees whose promotion is provided for in subsections (a) and (c) of section 1 of the act of May 29, 1928 (U. S. C., 1934 ed., title 19, sec. 6a). The employees excepted from promotion under the pending bill are laborers whose salaries are fixed at $1,500 per annum under subsection (a) of the act cited, which subsection is amended by section 2 of H. R. 3 so as to provide for promotion to $1,600 after 1 year of satisfactory service; and clerks whose entrance salaries are fixed by subsection (c) of the said act at $1,700 per annum with annual promotions thereafter of $100 each until a salary of $2,100 is reached. The bili (H. R. 3) makes provision for promotions above the average of the grade in the discretion of the Secretary of the Treasury, upon recommendation of the Commissioner of Customs, which do not differ materially from the present law and practice governing administrative promotions. The major feature of the bill is the annual promotion of employees who have rendered satisfactory service until they have reached the average of the grade. This is comparable to the present annual promotion of clerks in the Customs Service. It is in effect an extension to all customs field employees of the practice now governing the promotion of customs clerks. Employees of the customs field service other than clerks have served without promotion for such a long period of years that they have become greatly discouraged. This lack of material recognition for loyal, faithful, and satisfactory service destroys the morale and retards the initiative of the personnel. It is particularly true of a large class of customs field employees (customs inspectors) who are required to work side by side with immigration inspectors who receive much higher salaries even though they may have served for a much shorter period of time. This is due to the annual promotions received by immigration inspectors under the act of May 29, 1928 (Ù. S. C., 1934 ed., title 8, sec. 109). Immigration inspectors in many instances receive $400 a year more salary than customs inspectors. There are instances where immigration inspectors, without supervisory duties, receive higher salaries than customs officers in charge who have supervision over all the inspectors and employees at their port. In this connection I wish to invite attention to my report to your committee under date of March 16, 1935, on bill H. R. 4464, which provided for annual promotions of customs inspectors. In that report I pointed out that the enactment into law of the provisions of the bill would eliminate the dissatisfaction among the customs inspectors, but that by giving advantages to customs inspectors not granted to other groups, numbering approximately 5,000 employees; that the remedying of this one condition as proposed would, therefore, be likely to result in new and more widespread dissatisfaction; and that the Department, accordingly, did not favor the passage of the bill. This objection is eliminated from the bill now before your committee (H. R. 3) as it provides the same basis of promotion for all customs field employees. However, in view of that fact that the expense of the first series of promotions, if the bill is enacted into law, would amount to approximately $600,000, and the further fact that there is now in progress a study by Government personnel agencies of the general subject of classification, compensation, and retirement of Government employees, the Department does not favor the enactment of the bill into law. The proposed legislation is not in accordance with the program of the President. Very truly yours, ROSWELL MAGILL, Acting Secretary of the Treasury. Since the above letter was submitted with respect to H. R. 3, H. R. 7948 was introduced which it is estimated will cost $720,000 the first year, as shown by the following letter (H. R. 7948 being the unnumbered draft referred to therein): Hon. ROBERT L. DOUGHTON, Chairman, Ways and Means Committee, TREASURY DEPARTMENT, House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. MY DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: Reference is made to an informal request from the Honorable John W. McCormack, a member of your committee, that the Treasury Department furnish such information as it can concerning H. R. 3, H. R. 3900, and an unnumbered draft of a bill, each of which is designed to authorize promotions for employees of the Customs Service. There are enclosed herewith copies of a comparative analysis prepared in the Department of the terms of each of the bills and the corresponding provisions of existing law. On the basis of available information, it is estimated that the cost in the first year of putting H. R. 3 into effect would be approximately $600,000; H. R. 3900 contains provisions which would require immediate promotions based upon the length of time employees have served within their present grades. A reasonably accurate estimation of the cost of these provisions would require the examination of approximately 8,500 service records, which cannot be accomplished within the time suggested for submission of this information. It is believed, however, that the cost during the first year of putting H. R. 3900 into effect would be between $1,350,000 and $1,600,000. The approximate cost during the first year of putting into effect the provisions of the unnumbered draft of bill would be $720,000. Very truly yours, Wм. H. McREYNOLDS, Administrative Assistant to the Secretary. In the opinion of your committee no stronger argument can be advanced for the enactment of this bill than that contained in the Acting Secretary of the Treasury's letter to the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. Especially so when one considers the same in connection with the duties imposed upon these loyal and faithful employees of the Government, as also the hopeless position in which they find themselves as measured by the lack of recognition accorded them during the past several years. It has long been recognized that conditions respecting salary promotions in the Customs Field Service merited the attention of Congress and a system of classification was set up by the act of May 29, 1928, providing minimum and maximum salary rates for various grades, but said act failed to provide for automatic promotions. Today, after the existing law has been in effect for 9 years we find that not one customs inspector in the whole United States is receiving the maximum salary intended by the act of Congress. We find the majority of these employees still at the minimum of their respective grades. In this connection attention is directed to the following charts illustrating salary stagnation in the Customs Field Service: Chart illustrating salary siagnation in Customs Service Statistics taken from 1938 Budget figures; positions selected are from those groups which make up bulk of service] |