5
Employees' Vacation and Sick
leaves Threatened; Civil Service
Hears Objections to Hew Hates
Thè Civil Service Commission noti
fied all department and /institution
heads on July 16 of a public hearing
to be held August .1 on the subject
of amending the present rules and reg
ulations. The announcement invited
department heads and employees with
questions or suggestions to be present.
The O.S.E.A. was. notified, but it is
doubted if many‘employees were told
about the matter by their department
heads !
Your O.S.E.A. officers here in Sa
lem held two emergency meetings on
the subject and decided on the material
and procedure ,of presenting our views
at the hearing.
The Major Proposed Changes
Most of the proposed changes were
in accordance with recent legislative
action, but the proposed changes, in
Rule II—"Definitions” and Rule XVIII
—"Leaves of Absence” were the ones
in which we were particularly con
cerned.
The proposed change in Rule XVII,
having to do with "Hours of Work”
is proposed to read that "the schedule
of regular working hours for the divi
sions or organization units shall pro
vide for a work week of forty (40)
hours for employees except where ex
igencies of departmental operations
necessitate longer hours and where such
conditions were considered in setting
pa yschedulés.” The present rule men
tions a 5 ^ -day, 40-hour week. There
were no objections made to the pro
posed change in this rule.
The proposed changes in Rules II
and XVIII briefly were as follows:
1. That "work day or working day”
means any business day as distinguished
from Sundays and other legal holidays.
2. That the daily rate for leave
deductions or earnings shall be calcu
lated by dividing the monthly salary
by 25.
3. That vacation leave with pay,
shall be an annual period of two cal-
endar weeks.
4. That vacation shall be granted at
the rate of one business day per c a l
endar month of service.
5. That* accumulated vacation leave
shall not exceed 26 business days.
6. That a new "special leave with
pay-^ not exceeding two business days
in one year may be granted—not as
part of any other paid leave, and not
accuihulative.
What the Changes Would Do
| The changes in Rules II and XVIII
would mean that your earned vacation
with pay would be charged against
your accumulation at the arbitrary rate
of six (6) days for each calendar week
taken, regardless of the number of days/
per week yon are required to work in
earning your pay. They would also
limit your maximum accumulation to
four calendar weeks and two days,
stead p f the 26 working days set by
law. They would set an arbitrary cash
value for a days leave of -absence of
any kind as being l/2 5 of a months
salary. If you don’t get the full im
port of these ^effects, you are probr
ably working in s o m e department
which is N O T NOW conforming with
the present rules and regulations!
Elsewhere in this issue is the letter
addressed and delivered to the Civil
Service Commission setting forth our
objections to these proposed changes,
our reasons and our recommendations.
Report on the Hearing
At the public hearing, official
O.S.E.A. representatives present were:
Forrest Stewart, executive secretary; I