4
Colman Speaks on Civil Service
The Civil Service Commission and
the Public Administration Service are
through with a major proportion of the
work on the classification plan. Tenta
tive class specifications are now being
submitted to department heads for re
view. This information was announced
by William G. Colman, Director of
Civil Service, when he appeared as guest
speaker at the Capitol Chapter meeting
on May 16. He explained further that
more descriptive job titles may be re
tained within a given department for
internal operating purposes. For exem-
The President’s Message
(Continued from Page 3)
try, to Federal service, to other states
and to cities and counties within our
own state. The reason is obvious, these
other agencies pay better wages. The
danger to the state lies not only in the
loss of trained employees but in- its
growing inability to replace them with
people of similar high caliber.
State employees, by the fact that they
have accepted work in the public ser
vice, cannot be classified as a greedy or
selfish group. Men and women in state
service certainly do not expect to be
come wealthy. A great many of them,
however, do have the desire to render a
real service to the public, but expect
in return an honest, equitable living
wage. They now have the opportunity
to make state service a career, the civil
service law makes that possible, but
the wage structure which goes with
that career is not attractive.
The Oregon State Employees Associ
ation is not asking for anything un
reasonable for state employees, it asks
for a remuneration comparable with the
wages paid for similar work by other
employers. This is a decent and fair re
quest and one which should be support
ed by the public as well as the state
employees.
pie, if one has been called the "Super
visor of the Control Unit,” he may con
tinue to sign that title on correspond
ence and to be so referred to in the
department. On all personnel, payroll
and budgetary records, however, his
position may be listed merely as Clerk
III. His clerk classification shows the
relation of his duties by those of em
ployees in other departments. It is
planned that these classifications will
be in effect by July 1946. There will
be approximately 400 -5 0 0 tentative
classifications into which will be fitted
the 8,000 positions of state employ
ment.
A survey is at present being made to
gather information about salary levels
in public and private employment in
Idaho, Nevada, Washington and Cali
fornia, and federal government offices
and private industry. Following a study
of this information, it is expected that
recommended salary ranges will be
ready by August 1. All employees when
first hired to work in a given classifi
cation will start at the minimum of
the salary range. Periodic increases may
be received up to the maximum estab
lished for each position. Increases will
not be automatic at given calendar
periods because all employees would
too soon reach the maximum salary. In
creases will instead be based upon the
quality and efficiency of the work per
formed by the employee and upon
length of service. Service ratings will be
submitted to the Civil Service Commis
sion by the head of each department at
given intervals, rating employees in
the performance of their work. Em
ployees will be allowed to see these
ratings upon request and may appeal if
they feel unfairly graded. Salary ranges
from base rate to maximum will cover
a probable differential of 20%.
One question which has puzzled
many employees is the matter of pro-