By REGINA S. HEYMAN

Division of Federal Unemployment Insurance Programs Bureau of Employment Security

NCLE SAM'S nieces and nephews now have UNC Ne sa se mors nieces anion against wage

loss

due to unemployment as have employees of private employers throughout the country. They will be eligible for the same amount of benefits under the same conditions as workers covered by State unemployment compensation laws, with maximum weekly benefits ranging from $20 to $35. Public Law 767, which added to the Social Security Act title XV, Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees, provides the protection of unemployment insurance for 2,350,000 Federal employees. Each State employment security agency, including those in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, is now taking claims and paying benefits to unemployed Federal workers under agreements with the Secretary of Labor.

Title XV gives the Secretary of Labor authority to administer and interpret the law. He has issued regulations establishing the responsibilities of Federal agencies and of the State employment security agencies under the title, and has delegated his authority to administer the program in Puerto Rico to the Puerto Rico Department of Labor and in the Virgin Islands to the Virgin Islands Employment Service.

Provisions of the Law

The law provides that benefits are to be paid to Federal employees "in the same amount, on the same terms, and subject to the same conditions as the compensation that would be payable" if their Federal employment had been subject to the State employment security law.

The service covered is that performed for the Federal Government or its wholly owned instrumentalities, except for 13 specified categories of service. The principal exclusions are service performed by elective officers in the executive and legislative branches of government, by members of the Armed Forces of the

United States, by certain foreign service personnel for whom special separation allowances are provided, by persons who are not citizens of the United States employed outside the United States, by certain interns and student nurses as employees of hospitals of the Federal Government, and by individuals. employed on a temporary basis in case of fire, storm, earthquake, flood, or similar emergency.

Special problems arose with respect to Federal employees in Guam, Samoa, and the Panama Canal Zone. The Guamanians and Samoans are American citizens and their service (unless in a specifically excluded category) is covered service. But they cannot claim benefits unless they are in continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, or the Virgin Islands. American citizens in Panama who are required to leave the Canal Zone when they are separated from their Federal employment may file claims when they return to the States.

Some of the most difficult problems of coverage have had to do with deciding whether an agency is or is not a wholly owned instrumentality of the United States. It has been decided, for example, that employees of armed services post exchanges and service. clubs and of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation are covered. While each Federal agency is responsible for determining whether or not its employees are covered by the title, the Secretary of Labor is responsible for interpreting what constitutes Federal service under the law. In every instance where a Federal agency reports to a State employment security agency that a claimant's service for it was not "Federal service" as defined, the Bureau of Employment Security investigates whether the Federal agency's decision is consistent with the Secretary's interpretation, and advises the Federal agency whenever it is not.

The law establishes the State to which an individual's Federal wages are to be assigned to avoid dupli

cate use of the same wages. The State of assignment is always either the State in which the claimant had his last official station or the State in which he lives at the time he initiates his claim. It is the State in which he lives if he has performed work covered under that State unemployment insurance law after his Federal employment, or if his last official station was outside the United States, of if he lives in Puerto Rico or the Virgin Islands. The wages which are assigned are the Federal wages for the base period current in the State of assignment.

Paying for the Program

The benefit costs of the program are financed by special congressional appropriations. The amount to be paid by the Federal Government is the actual amount of benefit costs incurred as a result of the program, not a percentage of payrolls. Thus the Federal agencies will not have to budget the expense of benefits of their ex-employees. As in most States, the employees themselves do not pay anything toward financing the benefits.

State administrative expenses of the program are financed by funds collected under the Federal Unemployment Tax Act, as these expenses are considered expenses of administration of the State employment security laws. Federal agencies meet their own administrative expenses-e. g., for searching and controlling records, filling out reports and answering inquiries from their appropriated funds.

The Federal agencies have many of the responsibilities of an employer under a State unemployment insurance law. They must furnish wage and separation information on request and additional information needed by a State agency to make a determination. Representatives of the employing agency must be prepared to appeal State decisions with which they do not agree and to appear at hearings when they have evidence to offer. The Federal agencies receive notices of determination on claims, the same as State-covered employers. But they do not receive notices concerned with experience rating, such as notices of benefits paid or charges to their accounts, since they have no financial obligations analogous to that of a private employer.

Planning for the Program

Before the program began, there was a great deal of planning activity. Long before the law was passed, in fact as long ago as the fall of 1951, the Federal Personnel Council established a special committee to study the administrative problems of a program of unemployment compensation for Federal workers which was then being considered by the Congress. The bill, which did not pass, was similar to the law enacted last year. The work done by the Personnel Council and its report were of inestimable value in getting the new program under way.

When the law was enacted, the Bureau of Employment Security established a new division, the Division

of Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees, to work directly on the administration of title XV. Recently the division was expanded to include a section dealing with veterans' claims under title IV of the Veterans' Readjustment Assistance Act of 1952, and is now the Division of Federal Unemployment Insurance Programs.

At the invitation of the Bureau, the following States sent staff members to Washington to work for 2 weeks in developing the program: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Kansas, New York, and Oregon. The State people worked in committees with Bureau staff, members of the Solicitor's Office, and representatives of some of the larger Federal agencies. They developed recommendations for the agreements provided for in the law and for the Secretary's regulations governing State agencies and Federal agencies in their administration of the program. They prepared draft procedures and training material for adaptation by the State employment security agencies, and outlined fiscal procedures and statistical reporting requirements.

Before publication, all the materials were discussed with State administrators at the annual meeting of the

Interstate Conference of Employment Security Agencies in New Orleans in October. The State agencies received their materials early in November, and during that month meetings of State and Bureau personnel were held throughout the country at which the method of operation was outlined and problem areas discussed.

Although no benefits were payable under the program for weeks of unemployment beginning before January 1, 1955, State employment security agencies actually began operating before that date. Large signs were posted in local offices to advise claimants who had had Federal employment in their current base period to ask for a redetermination of their benefits, if they were receiving less than the State maximum, so that their Federal wages could be included in their determination. Claims takers began to prepare for these redeterminations late in December, so that any increase in the weekly benefit amount could be paid promptly for the week ending January 8.

The Bureau of Employment Security prepared a pamphlet which was distributed to every government employee late in 1954 or early in 1955. This pamphlet

described the program and explained coverage and the broad requirements for benefits and how to obtain them. But how could ex-employees, no longer on the rolls when the program became effective but separated recently enough to have Federal wages in the base period then current, be advised of their rights? It was hoped that people who were still employed would tell their unemployed friends about it. In addition there was some newspaper and radio publicity about the new program, and State employment security agencies put up posters in post offices.

No new claims were taken under the program before January 3. Claimants who filed new claims after the program began had to serve a waiting week in all States but Maryland, Nevada, and North Carolina, so that for the majority of claimants the first compensable week could not end before January 15. Over 12,000 initial claims, excluding claims to supplement State benefits, were filed by Federal employees in the first week, which ended January 8. This figure has not even been approximated since that date, showing that the first week's figure represented a backlog of Federal employees unemployed when the law went into effect. However, during the first 4 weeks a total of 38,290 initial claims were filed, of which 9,499 were claims supplementing State benefits. Through March 26, a total of $5,609,000 had been paid in benefits to former Federal workers.

Of the 32,000 claims filed in January in 40 States which classified them by Federal agency, over twothirds were filed by civilian employees of the Department of Defense. The Post Office, with 1,275 claims, was the only other agency with more than 1,000.

Developing Procedures for Federal Agencies

The unemployment insurance program was an entirely new one for Federal agencies. Representatives of the General Accounting Office, the Budget Bureau, the Civil Service Commission, the Department of Defense, and the Post Office worked with Bureau of Employment Security staff members in exploring the problems involved in notifying potential claimants of their rights, in reporting wage and separation information promptly, and in getting instructions to the thousands of personnel and payroll offices which would be involved in furnishing wage and separation information to State agencies.

The materials developed were distributed to personnel and fiscal officers of all Federal agencies at a general meeting held November 1, 1954. Using these as a basis, each Federal agency has developed its own procedures and trained its personnel in the operations necessary to administer the program.

Beginning with January 1955, every Federal employee who is separated from his job is given a new form in addition to other required notices. Standard Form 8, Notice to Separated Federal Employee, states simply that the employee may be eligible for unemployment compensation, and, if he wishes to file a claim, he should take this form, any similar forms from other agencies, and his official notice of per

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AS AN EMPLOYER

PROVIDING the many services, both national and international, IN required by the public, the Federal Government employs 2,300,000 civilian workers in more than 60 departments and agencies. Its workers are stationed throughout the United States, in its Territories and possessions, and in many foreign countries. They are engaged in about 15,000 different occupations representing nearly every kind of work that is found in private employment, as well as some peculiar to Government.

The magnitude of the Government's manpower needs is evident in the more than 20,000 employees at work in the physical sciences, nearly 50,000 in engineering, 10,000 in the social sciences, 17,000 in personnel administration and industrial relations, 66,000 in medicine and allied fields, 8,000 in education, 77,000 in accounting and fiscal work, and 57,000 in inspection and investigation activities.

-U. S. CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION.

sonnel action to the nearest public employment office. The notice includes the address of the office at which his payroll records are available. This address is very important when he files his claim. To this address the State employment security agency will send its request for his wage and separation report.

For the States, however, the program presented little that was absolutely new. The new program has some features in common with the program of Unemployment Compensation for Veterans (UCV) in which all States participate under agreements with the Secretary of Labor. The language of the UCFE law is more similar to that of title XIII of the Social Security Act, Reconversion Unemployment Benefits for Seamen (RUBS), under which all States paid benefits from 1947-1950 under their own benefit formulas as agents of the United States.

In States using quarterly wage reports as a basis for determining workers' rights to benefits, a special system of request reporting had to be developed for Federal workers. When a Federal employee files a claim for unemployment compensation, the State agency makes out a request for wage and separation information to be sent to each Federal agency for which the claimant worked in his base period.

When the claimant's base period wages are assigned to a State, they are treated for purposes of benefit determinations just as if they had been subject to the State unemployment insurance law. The claimant must meet all the wage and eligibility requirements of that State law and must not be disqualified. The disqualifications are the same as on regular State unemployment insurance claims. However, neither waiting week nor compensable weeks may be served during a period for which a claimant receives terminal pay for accrued annual leave. On a joint claim, benefits based on State wages may be paid during such a period in most States.

Every Federal agency has a basic pay document which it uses as the source of wage reports to the States. The agency annotates this document when a report is made, in order to prevent use of the same wages in a determination by more than one State employment security agency. If a second State.

requests information for any part of a base period for which wages have already been assigned to a State, the second State agency is advised of the prior assign

ment.

One problem in getting prompt reports on wage and separation information was the system of retirement of records established throughout the Federal Government. Periodically all pay and personnel records are transferred to the Records Center in St. Louis. In many cases, records which are needed for a base period are no longer in the agency which employed the claimant but have been sent to the Records Center. Arrangements were made with the General Services Administration, which maintains the Records Center, to obtain wage and separation information by teletype, upon request, through the payroll office from which the claimant was paid. If efforts by the State agency and the regional office fail to discover the records and there is evidence that the claimant actually worked for the Federal Government, the Bureau gets the information from the individual's retirement records-either from the Civil Service Commission or the Bureau of Old-Age and Survivors Insurance.

Appeals From Federal Findings

The law provides that the findings of the Federal agencies are "final and conclusive" as to whether a claimant performed Federal service, the amount of his Federal wages, and the reason for his separation. A claimant may ask for additional information or reconsideration, however, when he does not agree with a Federal report or he thinks it is incomplete or incorrect. In order to protect the claimant's appeal rights under the State law, he is considered to have filed an appeal from a State determination at the time he requests additional information from his Federal employer.

TELEVISION

(Continued from page 24)

With the participants seated in the studio and the TV cameras manned, the show begins with appropriate introductory music and an aerial view of a metropolitan area with the words "Job Opportunities" emblazoned in large letters across the picture. Then the station announcer says, "Presenting Job Opportunities!... For the man or woman who's looking for a new opportunity to work and serve! . . . Here's a program of opportunities... Offered by the Illinois State Employment Service. Our host is (station moderator)."

Our host introduces the participants; he questions the employer; the Employment Service representative interviews the applicant; the moderator discusses with the Employment Service representative the jobs listed on the bulletin board and other jobs listed in the outline. Sometimes the guest employer interviews the guest applicant and occasionally hires the applicant then and there. The program ends with the moderator appropriately expressing the sentiment of participants to the unseen audience, and the station announcer saying, "You have been watching a special pro

gram of job opportunities, presented under the auspices of the Illinois State Employment Service, 412 South Fifth in Springfield! This is a weekly program on channel twenty.'

In any undertaking, it is good business to evaluate the results, to seek the answer to the question: Is it worth it? "Job Opportunities" requires extraordinary effort but the accomplishments have likewise been extraordinary. It has brought local employers and the local employment service closer together, resulting in a greater variety of job openings for the local office. It has brought in more job-seeking persons of all skill levels to help us in filling job orders. It also has focused the attention of more nonjobseeking people on the services performed by the local staff, thereby creating more interest in the Job Story through a better knowledge of the caliber of both jobs and workers handled by the local office. It has stimulated the local office staff, making their jobs more challenging and more satisfying. Important, too, is the fact that the program is a local office venture, dedicated to all the people who use the local employment service.

Functional Occupational
Classification Project

DESEARCH and developmental work on occupational Rclassification directed toward improving and unifying

the present structure of the DICTIONARY OF OCCUPATIONAL TITLES Parts II and IV has been going on at the national office of the United States Employment Service since 1950. Since this work is based on the constructive criticism of the various State and local offices, attempts have been made to keep personnel throughout the Employment Service informed of the progress of this research.

Progress has been rather slow because of the nature of the work and the small staff engaged in the project, but a few articles have been written for general distribution.

Walter S. Studdiford, Chief of the Bureau's Occupational Analysis Branch, prepared a general article on the project which appeared in the September 1953 issue of the EMPLOYMENT SECURITY REVIEW. That same issue contained an article by Earl Klein of the Bureau staff reviewing the "Better Tools for Serving the Handicapped" and mentioning the possible uses of Functional Occupational Classification research in this field. An article, entitled "Worker Characteristics Important to a Variety of Jobs," which described the application of the research project to the 1951 edition of the JOB GUIDE FOR YOUNG WORKERS was prepared by Jewell Boling, one of the Bureau technicians engaged in this work, and published in the April 1954 issue of the REVIEW.

Visits to the States and consultation with individuals around the country have indicated the desirability of keeping employment service personnel informed about this work which, as far as the pilot project is concerned, is nearing completion. For that purpose, a series of fact sheets has been inaugurated; two have been issued and several others are in draft form or being planned. Although no strict schedule of release dates has been established for the Fact Sheets, an attempt is being made to issue one every 2 months or so. Fact Sheet Number 1, dated October 1954, outlined the entire project, presenting the salient facts regarding organization, objectives, methods, and components study. Fact Sheet Number 2, dated January 1955, gave a somewhat detailed insight into the use of Interests as a classification component. Fact Sheet Number 3, recently released, deals with Temperaments as a classification Factor. Fact Sheets are distributed to all of the Regional and State offices.

U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1955