The Federal Employees Salary Act of 1965 (Public Law 89-301) specified that all regular employees would be assigned to a basic work week of 5 full 8-hour days. This eliminated the half-days on Saturdays for both clerks and carriers, thereby creating a greater demand for additional substitute employees. Increasing the ratio of career substitutes to 1 to 4 would partially provide the flexibility needed to cope with this restrictive feature of Public Law 89-301. Off-day coverage in the clerical and mail handler force has lagged behind in recent years because of budgetary limitations which necessarily restricted the authorization and hiring of additional regular employees specifically to provide off-day coverage. Relief from this situation is needed by increasing the ratio of substitute employees and by increasing the number of full-time regular employees. We do not have a sufficient number of career substitutes to fill the gap left by the lag in authorizing regular positions to provide off-day coverage in the clerk and mail handler force. Normal absences on approved leave, including regular off-days varies from 23 to 32 percent on a given day. This exceeds the present flexibility of career substitutes which has no more relief capability than 20 percent. Overtime in excess of 40 hours per week for substitute employees has created an additional need for an increase in career employees, which is not possible under present laws. The expansion of delivery and collection services throughout the country has created a demand for part-time coverage of auxiliary and collection routes which cannot be met by the career work force. By increasing the ratio of career substitutes to one sub for each four city carriers, or fraction thereof, a substantial number of temporary employees could be eliminated. One of the major purposes for increasing the ratio of substitutes to regulars, is the need to eliminate as many temporary employees as possible. Temporary employees, knowing that they have no career status, have not measured up to the efficiency level which is expected of career employees. The Bureau of the Budget has advised that there is no objection to the presentation of this draft bill from the standpoint of the administration's program. Sincerely yours, LAWRENCE F. O'BRIEN. CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW MADE BY THE BILL, AS REPORTED In compliance with clause 3 of rule XIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives, changes in existing law made by the bill, as reported, are shown as follows (existing law proposed to be omitted. is enclosed in black brackets, new matter is printed in italic, existing law in which no change is proposed is shown in roman): H.R. 1085 SECTION 3302 OF TITLE 39, UNITED STATES CODE § 3302. Substitute positions (a) Except as otherwise provided in this section the Postmaster General shall prescribe the conditions under which substitutes may be appointed. (b) The Postmaster General may appoint not more than one career substitute to [five] regular employees, or fraction thereof, in any of the following categories: (1) postal transportation clerks; (3) city letter carriers; (6) watchmen; (7) messengers; (8) employees of the Motor Vehicles Service. (c) In post offices having fewer than [five] four regular employees, the Postmaster General may appoint one career substitute clerk, carrier, and employee in the Motor Vehicle Service. (d) The Postmaster General may not appoint additional career substitutes until the ratios prescribed by this section are established. (e) The Postmaster General may not furlough or dismiss a career substitute in the categories covered by this section to meet requirements of this section. (f) In determining the number of career substitute employees which may be appointed in accordance with this section, the Postmaster General may not include supervisory employees as regular employees. (g) The Postmaster General may not appoint, at any first class post office, any person as a temporary substitute employee in any of the categories listed in subsection (b) of this section unless a period of one hundred and twenty days or more has elapsed since he was so employed and such appointment shall not continue for a period greater than one hundred and twenty days, except that the limitations of this subsection do not apply to- (1) any category of employees at a post office at which there are less than twenty-five employees; (2) employment after November 14 in any year and before January 1 of the immediately following year; (3) any category of employees for which there is not available a register of a sufficient number of eligibles; and (4) appointments made with the concurrence of the Civil Service Commission for the purpose of providing part-time employment to special groups of persons. Mr. Nix, from the Committee on Post Office and Civil Service, submitted the following REPORT [To accompany H.R. 14935] The Committee on Post Office and Civil Service, to whom was referred the bill (H.R. 14935), to amend title 39, United States Code, to regulate the mailing of master keys for motor vehicle ignition switches, and for other purposes, having considered the same, report favorably thereon without amendment and recommend that the bill do pass. PURPOSE The purpose of this legislation is to make nonmailable master keys or other manipulation-type devices designed to unlock the igintion switches or locks of more than one automobile, except when such devices are mailed to certain authorized users, such as locksmiths, dealers in motor vehicles, officers or employees of parking facilities, common carriers, or motor vehicle rental businesses for use in connection with their business, or to officers or employees of an automobile club or association for use in connection with club activities, or to procurement personnel of Federal, State, or local governments for use in government activities. STATEMENT EXPLANATION OF THE BILL This legislation will amend section 4001 of title 39, United States Code, relating to the nonmailability of certain items, to add a new nonmailable category. The new provision declares as nonmailable master keys or other manipulation-type devices designed or adapted to operate the ignition switches, door locks and trunk locks of more than one automobile, except when mailed in accordance with regu lations prescribed by the Postmaster General to certain authorized persons, such as locksmiths, dealers in motor vehicles, officers or employees of parking facilities, common carriers, or motor vehicle rental business for use in connection with such business, or to officers or employees of an automobile club or association for use in connection with the activities of the club or association, or to supply or procurement personnel of a Federal, State, or local government agency for use in connection with government activities. The exceptions are intended to permit the use of the mail for distribution of master keys only when the addressee is one of the class of persons specified in the law as being entitled to receive such keys through the mails. It is not to be interpreted as permitting any of the persons listed in the exceptions, such as a locksmith, to mail master keys unless the addressee is entitled to receive such keys through the mail. This position is strengthened by the enforcement provision contained in the new section, which authorizes the Postmaster General to require, as a condition of the mailing, that the mailer file with the postmaster at the time of the mailing a certification by the mailer and the addressee that the addressee to whom the key is to be mailed is a person who is entitled to receive the key through the mail under the provisions of this section. The Postmaster General is authorized to issue such regulations as he determines necessary to define a "key" or "manipulation-type device" which will be nonmailable under this legislation. Under section 2 of the bill, the proposal will become effective on the 60th day following the date of enactment. The mailing of such keys today does not violate any postal regulation or Federal law. This legislation is designed to restrict by law the easy distribution of master keys through the mails by making such items nonmailable. The proposal is very limited in scope. It contains no criminal penalty. But a certification required by the provisions, if false, would subject the person who made the false certification to criminal penalties under 18 United States Code 1001. It will not stop the transportation of master keys in interstate commerce by means other than the U.S. mail. It has the sole purpose of eliminating the use of the mails for the indiscriminate distribution of master keys and to remove one of the means by which a juvenile can obtain a "tool" to facilitate the unlawful entry into automobiles and the operation of ignition switches. The committee recognizes that this legislation is not a complete answer to the problem of automobile thefts. It merely removes one of the tempting means of obtaining a device to facilitate the theft of an automobile. The committee is convinced that this one avenue of master key procurement should be closed immediately and recognizes that the legislation is not a complete solution to the problem. HISTORY AND BACKGROUND The chairman of the Subcommittee on Postal Operations (Robert N. C. Nix, Democrat, of Pennsylvania), House Post Office and Civil Service Committee, sponsored this legislation when two articles from his district in Philadelphia were called to his attention, one from H.R. 1086 |