Image provided by: SEIU Local 503; Salem, OR
About The Oregon state employee. (Salem, Oregon.) 1944-195? | View Entire Issue (Nov. 1, 1947)
12 week does not as yet apply to all state employees has caused some dissatisfac tion w ithin our ranks. O ur failure to make it applicable to all classifications was based on factors over which there waS, rip tsingle control. Lack of housing facilities at our insti tution^, a poor labor market for cer tain' types of employees, previously es tablished construction program, the in come factor and previously established budgets, together made a uniform, work-week impossible at this time. I We should not discount the reaction of the general p u b li^ to the five-day work-wéek. Public reaction in the Salem area hais n o t been good. Many business firms have Strongly opposed this idea. My recommendation is to continue our effotts to bring as many employees under a m onthly salary as possible, thus opening the w âyrto bring these pebple under the five-day week. Vacation: During the year, the Civil Service Cotnmission revised, its rules whereby vacation Ipaye is now to be allowed at the rate of two ¡calendar weeks for each twelve m onths of- ser vice, Before révision, ,-thef rules, we-te based on one work day ôf vacation., pér m onth of service. Pressure from private employers arid public opinion are B B lieved to haye had their I effect on the Comfnission’S ruling. A two-daÿ per year casual leave’ has now been allowed under the revised rules which off-sets to some extent the arbitrary reduction in vacation leave. H 11 SzcA Leave: In most cases, depart ments have credited I employees w ith sick-leave earned before Civil Service went' into effect. We played an active part in, securing concessions from some departments; Regular Pay Days: We have made but little progress in establishirig a reg ular pay day for I hourly employees, even though we have made many ef forts to do so. Methods of reporting payroll data and delivering checks ate apparently cumbersome and I antiquat ed, y The Assoçiatiori should-offer a solu tion to this problem. Possible solutions are: ehmiriation of hourly rates o f pay, two pay days per month, setting B n Earlier date-'for closing payroll accounts or ,setting a pay-day-'far enough Bed the month to be met by j accounting ,dfiyfsidri5y under any < circumstances. Merit Ratings; To date not all of %he departments have attempted to apply the system to their employee^. Some have, ignored the rules entirely, some have" /entered' into i&vhalf-heartedly,x4pd few haVe made a sincere effort to Es tablish a , workable System. The m atter of Merit ratings "should not be ignored by this sessiori B the General Council. Either we should make a determined e f f o rtto see that the rule is ^enforced honestly and to the best ability of ’those applying it, or recom mend that; f t 'be discarded. As applied in many instances, it is/a' travesty^'B Examinationss We have a committee appointed to w ork w ith the State Civil Servipe Director on examinations. A meeting of the Committee was called but postponed at .the request of the Di rector. A subsequent date has;not been set. . 5$ We friust keep vigilant ori thls -rriat- ter. RETIREM ENT: O ur efforts' toward amending -the Retirement A ct ate reported elsewhere. There appears tqz be some question about- the present policy of the Retire ment Board regarding date of disabil ity Retirement where an employee has sick leave'and vacation credit. There is also a question of the Board’s policy of not allowing pay for accuriiu- lated if ^C atio n when retirement age' is reached. The Board b$s evidently' forced some employees to retire two weeks be fore the end of the m onth in order to use up accumulated vacation. The Association ha-s been asked to take a I position I on the policy adopted by I some departments I and institutions in retiring ^everyone reaching the re tirement age regardless of efficiency and health. The Retirement A ct has been criti-
