13
OSEA Salary
Policy
The Board of Directors, O SEA, were,
called to Salem on. Saturday, August
25, for a special meeting to discuss the
current wage and salary situation, and
to set a policy to be followed at this
time. Also, the meeting was arranged
to permit thé free discussion and inter
change of ideas concerning other mat
ters of interest to the Association. At
the close of the all-day meeting, the
following statement of policy was made
public:
“ The Board of Directors of the Ore
gon State Employees Association in a
meeting today recognized that one of
the basic needs in the interest of ob
taining efficiency in state government
is the maintenance of an adequate
force of experienced and qualified em
ployees in state service. Furthermore,
in order to build and maintain such an
efficient and effective state service the
Association resolves to request an in
crease in pay for all state employées in
an amount sufficient to hold qualified
and experienced employees in service.
In support of this request we call to
attention the fact that there have been
approximately 5,000 resignations from
state service in the last year, and a
total of 8,267 separations from all
causes. The larger percentage of the
5,000 resignations represents employees
who have resigned to accept positions
outside of state service at more attrac
tive pay. Many of these resigning em
ployees were skilled employees trained
in state service and their loss has re
sulted in increased costs due to the
high expense involved in training re
placements.
In view of the probability of a lim
ited future labor market resulting from
demands of military and industrial ex
pansion, the Association believes we
should concentrate on building a group
of skilled and efficient employees to
carry on the operation of the state gov
ernment who would be working under
pay scales and conditions which would
be an inducement for them to remain
in State service.
The Board of Directors of this As
sociation states that the adoption of
this policy would result in increased ef
ficiency in all state departments and
an ultimate' saviftgs to the taxpayers of
the State of Oregon.
In line with the above policy th,e
Board of Directors commends the re
cent action of the C iv il Service Board
in granting a pay increase to the civil
engineer groups in state service.
Furthermore, that we approve and
recommend adoption of the corrections
requested by the State Prison Chapter
for improving the efficiency in opera
tion of the State Prison.
We recognize the inadequacy of the
pay scale of certain classifications of
state employees and recommend that
proper steps be taken to correct the
deficiencies.” ,
*
*
*
The Board of Directors instructed
the president to appoint a committee
of three from the Board of Directors
to act in cooperation with the execu
tive secretary’s office in making a
study of salary trends and living costs
and furnish the Board with a report
of their findings at the next meeting
of the Board. The committee appointed
consists of F. Gordon Shattuck, Salem,
chairman, E. F. Chidsey, La Grande,
and J . T. Skelton, Portland.
Tuberculosis
Chest X -R ay
Many m e m b e r s Of O SEA have
been quite active as leaders in The
Tuberculosis Chest X -R ay Survey
which is still in progress throughout
the eight counties of the Willamette
Valley. The State Employees were the
first, to be x-rayed when Marion coun
ty initiated its program during the
month of Ju ly , 1951. In view of this
very active participation it was felt
that the members of O SEA might be
vitally interested in some of the rather
enlightening statistics which have
been compiled to date as far as Marion
county and the valley wide program
is concerned.
According to records compiled in
Marion county to and including Sep
tember 18, there was a total of 51,972
persons X-rayed or 66.9% of the Mar-*
ion county population. Of this number
(Continued on Page 25)