Image provided by: SEIU Local 503; Salem, OR
About The Oregon state employee. (Salem, Oregon.) 1944-195? | View Entire Issue (Dec. 1, 1944)
36 Report oi Interim Committee (Continued from page 3$) costs, but the time used in the 64 different departments would, in all probability, consume the cost of a merit system. In other words, we are paying for, but do not have, a merit system. O ur Budget Director has performed a creditable task in standardizing pay according to types of work, but this leaves the gate wide open for favoritisims and bona fide errors, i.e., the head of Department A, be cause he doesn’t know better or be cause he has taken a fancy to Jennie Jones, classifies her as a senior steno grapher. She types only 40 words a minute, misspells, and is not too effi cient, and she receives $166.67 a month; yet the head of Department B, either because he doesn’t know better or has taken a dislike to Susie Smith, classifies her as a junior stenographer. She can type 60 words a minute, spells correctly, and is generally efficient, but receives only $12 5.00 a month. Besides the re duction of morale among employees, this causes waste and inefficiency in the State government. This classification of positions and salaries is part of any merit system, and the fact that it has been done will enable Oregon to more quickly set a merit service law into opera tion. Citations from the publication "The Business Value of a Merit System” reveal that the police department of Cincinnati, 72 square miles, operat ed under merit system with 615 po licemen at an annual cost of one million dollars, whereas, St. Louis, Missouri, with only 64 square miles and without a merit system, uses 3000 policemen and spends five million dollars. The post office de partment, since its merit system, works more effectively and saves annually $60,000. Philadelphia re ports a substantial saving w ith a merit system. Akron, Ohio, saved $29,800 its first year under merit service. The small State of Maine, in its first year under civil service, saved many thousands of dollars and eliminated 186 unnecessary posi tions. St. Paul, Minn., Commission of Public Works, by civil service, was able to remove 50 percent of its employees. In 193 8, an investiga tion of the Citizen League of Cleve land, found that without a merit system, its cost of waste removal was $7.94 per ton with 488 em ployees, but in Cincinnati, with a merit system, it was $3.98 per ton wi th only 214 employees. The area topography and other conditions fa vored Cleveland. Michigan reports an annual saving of $1,200,000 of taxpayers’ money through the stan dardization of salaries and the elim ination of unnecessary positions. “If th e 43rd L egislative A ssem bly passes a m e rit system a c t fo r Oregon, it w ill becom e law in Ju n e, 1945. T he m e rit system w ill begin to op erate in th e spring or sum m er of 1946. I t w ould ap p ear th a t this w ould be a n ideal tim e fo r a n estab lishm ent of a m e rit system because it is som e tim e w ithin th e n e x t tw o years th a t w e look fo rw ard to fin a l v icto ry and reconversion of m anpow er to n o n -w ar industries. “As S tate funds a re now being set aside and po st-w ar plans a re now being m ade, w e w ill have th e m oney and b lu e p rin ts read y to s ta rt S tate projects. M any new em ployees w ill th e n be h ire d not only fo r th e new w ork, b u t to replace m any p a rtia lly capable te m p o ra ry em ployees w ho a re now filling in, due to m an-pow er shortage. “To assure th e ta x p a y e rs th a t th e ir m oney is being used as w ages only to com petent em ployees, and to give th e v eteran s of th is w a r a preference, th e 43rd L egislative A ssem bly should enact a m e rit system law .” LEO SMITH EARL HILL
