SUBCOMMITTEE ON INDEPENDENT OFFICES AND DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT ROBERT E. HAMPTON, CHAIRMAN JAMES E. JOHNSON, COMMISSIONER L. J. ANDOLSEK, COMMISSIONER N. J. OGANOVIC, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR WILFRED V. GILL, ASSISTANT TO THE CHAIRMAN AND DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF LABOR MANAGEMENT RELATIONS ANDREW E. RUDDOCK, DIRECTOR, BUREAU OF RETIREMENT, INSURANCE AND OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH DAVID F. WILLIAMS, DIRECTOR, BUREAU OF MANAGEMENT W. B. UHLENHOP, CHIEF, BUDGET AND FINANCE DIVISION Mr. EVINS. We have with us this morning our friends from the Civil Service Commission. The names of the chairman and all of those in attendance have been placed in the record. We have two items in the supplemental request which has been referred by the President by letter of November 24, 1969. These items are first $430,000 to be transferred from the trust fund to the salaries and expenses appropriation for the Civil Service Commission. The second item relates to the Federal Labor Relations Council, a new matter which was created by Executive Order 11491 of October 29, 1969. This request is for $400,000. Chairman Hampton, the committee will be pleased to hear you. Mr. HAMPTON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a prepared statement, sir. If you like I shall follow through with that. Mr. EVINS. Proceed. (223) 37-713 0-6915 GENERAL STATEMENT Mr. HAMPTON. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, we welcome the opportunity to appear before you today in connection with an urgent supplemental request for fiscal year 1970. There are two items before you: First, an appropriation request of $400,000 to enable the Commission to staff and service the Federal Labor Relations Council established by the President to administer the Federal LaborManagement Relations program and second, an increase of $430,000 in the limitation on administrative expenses for the retirement and insurance program made necessary by approval of Public Law 91-93, the Civil Service Retirement Amendments of 1969. FEDERAL LABOR RELATIONS COUNCIL, SALARIES AND EXPENSES On October 29, 1969, the President signed Executive Order 11491, labor-management relations in the Federal service, culminating more than 2 years of study by two administrations. The order, which becomes effective January 1, 1970, replaces Executive Order 10988 which has governed Federal labor relations since 1962. Employee representation by labor organizations has grown tremendously in recent years. As of November 1968 more than 1,400,000 employees, 52 percent of the civilian work force, were included in 2,300 bargaining units for which unions had gained exclusive recognition. This growth has not been without considerable growing pains. The program vested almost all authority in agency heads, considered necessary in the transitional period from a situation of no overall Federal program to a formal, government-wide program. As employee representation grew, however, the lack of a central authority to administer the program brought unreasonable pressures on labor-management relationships. Rather than the responsibility desired and needed in a sound program geared to the more efficient and effective conduct of the public's business, the lack of third-party process and final decisionmaking tended to make both labor and management unaccountable for their actions. This fostered arbitrary management actions, a disregard for regulations and procedures by employee representatives who considered any decision improper no matter how merited, and a justification for mili tant tactics. It is precisely this identified need for third party machinery as an equitable, practical alternative to militancy, illegal strikes or strikerelated action that the Federal Labor Relations Council and other provisions of Executive Order 11491 are expected to meet. The order provides that the Federal Labor Relations Council will consist of the Chairman of the Civil Service Commission, who shall be Chairman of the Council, the Secretary of Labor, an official of the Executive Office of the President and such other officials of the executive branch as the President may designate from time to time. The Council is authorized to oversee the program, make policy decisions and to act as the final arbiter of disputes and administrative appeals between agencies and unions. The order also establishes the Federal Service Impass Panel as an agency within the Council. The Panel consists of at least three members appointed by the President, one of whom he designates as chairman. While the Council operates in the broad area of interpretation and application of the order, setting policy, and serving as a court of last resort on administrative matters, the Panel has only one assigned function-the all-important role of aiding unions and management to resolve impasses that arise during negotiations. The Panel is authorized to take whatever action it considers necessary to settle an impasse. This could involve, among other things, appointing impartial factfinders or arbitrators, or assessing the relative merits of the parties positions themselves. The Council is directed to provide the services and staff assistance needed by the Panel. In effect, then, the Civil Service Commission must provide services and staff for both the Council and Panel and it is for this purpose that we are requesting a supplemental appropriation. I do not think there's any doubt that the key to whether the new labor-management program succeeds depends on how well the Council and Panel perform their assigned functions. To put it more directly, if Executive Order 11491 is to have any significant effect on improving labor relations in the Federal service, the Council and Panel must establish credibility and resolve problems without undue delay. Actions taken by the Council and Panel will have little or no beneficial effect if the parties, and particularly the unions, have no faith in the fairness of the decisions; neither will their actions have beneficial effect if, for reasons of understaffing or lack of high-caliber people, decisions are delayed to the point they are meaningless. Justice delayed is justice denied. In either case, lack of credibility or unwarranted delay in decisionmaking, the program will falter. With this in mind, we are asking for the minimum funds and positions needed to get the Council and Panel fully operational as soon as it officially comes into being. This requires preliminary work such as writing and issuing regulations for making presentations to the Council and Panel when they actually come into being January 1, 1970. Office space, equipment, materials, and recruiting are other immediate needs. The $400,000 requested will support a staff of 30 professional and clerical positions for the last half of fiscal year 1970. This figure includes the Panel members and their secretaries. Organizationally, there will be an office of the Executive Director, including a Chief Counsel, a program division to deal with policy matters, an appeals division to consider such matters as exceptions to decisions of the Assistant Secretary of Labor for Labor-Management Relations, exceptions to arbitrators' awards and agency decisions on negotiability, and an impasses division, functioning at the direction of and for the Panel in the consideration of bargaining disputes. Since members of the Council obviously cannot devote day-by-day direction to the staff, the Executive Director will be shouldering great responsibility. For these duties, a staff of 15 professionals not counting the Panel members, certainly is a bare-bones operation. Truthfully, we don't know the extent of cases that will be generated for the Council and Panel. But we do know unresolved disputes have been accumulating for years and we expect a rush to make use of the new machinery. If the staffing proves woefully short, we will have to correct it in fiscal 1971 because I can assure you the operating of a fair, sound labor relations program is the only civilized answer we have to the growing militancy in public employment at all levels of government. The figure of $400,000 should be weighed against the savings to be realized from avoiding the excessive costs in money and morale of continuing disagreement on matters which labor and management cannot now settle conclusively for themselves. It should also be weighed against the savings that will accrue from other provisions of the order such as dropping multiple forms of recognition and requiring union negotiators to be "off the clock," that is, not paid by Federal funds when representing the union. To sum up, this request for supplemental appropriations results from Presidential direction to the Civil Service Commission to service and staff a central authority to run the labor relations program. Such a central authority is overdue, it is needed now, and unless properly staffed and funded it will be worse than none at all. SALARIES AND EXPENSES-TRANSFERS FROM TRUST FUNDS This is a request to increase the limitation for administrative expenses for the retirement and insurance programs from $7,887,000 to $8,317,000. The increase of $430,000 is required to process additional annuity and death claims and related work generated by the Civil Service Retirement Amendments of 1969, Public Law 91-93. This act, approved October 20, 1969, liberalized certain retirement benefits and amended the formula for computing annuities. These include: Use of high-three instead of high-5 average salary, credit for unused sick leave, adding 1 percent to each cost-of-living increase, higher annuities for survivors, and restoration of survivor annuities to certain remarried widows. These increases in annuity benefits are expected to generate 21,000 additional annuity and death claims above the workload programed for fiscal year 1970. Indications are that the major portion of the additional cases will be received before January 1970. The processing of these claims and related correspondence and other work will require $430,000. There is one other matter I would like to discuss with the committee. Since submitting the language for the appropriation, Federal Labor Relations Council, Salaries and Expenses, we find that it is necessary to provide additional language in order to pay the members of the Impasses Panel who will be employed intermittently at a daily rate. We propose to pay the panel members at a rate of not to exceed $150 per day. We will furnish you amended language incorporating this provision and request that you substitute it for the language in House Document 99-199. This amendment has been concurred in by the Bureau of the Budget. BUDGET JUSTIFICATION Mr. EVINS. Mr. Reporter we will insert the information contained in House Document 91-199, and the budget justification relating to the Federal Labor Relations Council at this point in the record. |