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WORKER ALIENATION, 1972

TUESDAY, JULY 25, 1972

U.S. SENATE,

SUBCOMMITTEE ON EMPLOYMENT, MANPOWER, AND POVERTY
OF THE COMMITTEE ON LABOR AND PUBLIC WELFARE,

Washington, D.C.

The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:10 a.m., Senator Edward M. Kennedy, presiding pro tempore.

Present: Senators Kennedy and Javits.

Committee staff members present: Richard E. Johnson, counsel; Basil Condos, professional staff member; William Spring, professional staff member; and John Scales, minority counsel.

Senator KENNEDY. The subcommittee will come to order.

The hearings of the Senate Subcommittee on Employment, Manpower and Poverty this morning will begin an exploration into the problems of worker discontent and alienation.

(A bill, S. 3916, subsequently introduced by Mr. Kennedy, for himself, Mr. Javits, Mr. Nelson, and Mr. Stevenson, to provide for research into the problems of worker alienation follows:)

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IN THE SENATE

Mr. KENNEDY (for himself, M introduced the following Committee on Labor and F

To provide for research fo among American wo and technical assistanc local governments se problem, and for other

SEC. 2. (a) The C

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nature of their jobs is a problem of growing seriousness

to the national economy and to individual workers;

(2) alienation often results in high rates of absenteeism, high turnover, poor quality work, a decline in craftsmanship, and lessened productivity;

(3) alienation often results in high levels of frustration among workers with the following consequences: poor mental health, poor motivation, alcoholism, drug abuse, and social dissatisfaction among workers;

(4) it is in the national interest to encourage the humanization of working conditions and the work itself so as to increase worker job satisfaction and to diminish the negative effects of job dissatisfaction; insofar as possible, work should be designed to maximize potentials for democracy, security, equity, and craftsmanship;

(5) it is in the national interest to promote the fullest devedopment of the abilities, creativity, skills, and personal growth of all American workers;

(6) the problem of worker discontent and alienation has for too long been largely ignored by government, management, and unions;

(7) promising efforts to deal with the problems of alienation carried out in this country and in Europe are not widely known.

SEC. 3. (a) The Secretary of Labor and the Secretary of

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1 Health, Education, and Welfare are hereby authorized to

2 either directly or by way of grant, contribution, or other

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(1) conduct research, to determine the extent and the severity of job discontent and the problems related

to the nature of work in American worksites, included but not limited to:

(A) quality of work, levels of turnover, absenteeism, sabotage, and loss of productivity; and the monetary costs to the economy of those problems;

(B) worker health, including statistics on mental and physical health and emotional stability;

(2) conduct research on methods now being used in both this Nation and abroad to meet the problems of

work alienation, including more flexible hours of work,

reduced working days, profit sharing, additional responsibility for workers, job rotation, worker participation in the decisionmaking process with regard to the nature and content of his job, redesign of jobs and production 20 patterns, autonomous work groups, and additional op

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portunity for education, training, and advancement;

(3) collect and disseminate research results and recommendations for relieving worker discontent and for improving the quality of work, to workers, to unions,

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to companies, to schools of management and industrial

engineering, and to the general public;

(4) provide technical assistance to workers, unions, companies, State and local governments for (i) practical

experimentation in meeting the problems of alienation

in their own places of work; (ii) the development and conduct of pilot demonstration projects expected to make significant contributions to the knowledge in the field, to include but not be limited to such programs as job enrichment, guaranteed employment, reduced workdays and weeks, autonomous work groups, job restructuring, increased worker participation in decisionmaking on the nature and content of his job, increased job mobility, job

rotation, group productivity bonuses, compensation on the basis of skills learned, continuing education and train

ing both to provide new careers and new opportunities

for increased job satisfaction;

(5) provide support of the Triadic national survey on working conditions and work satisfaction of the Department of Labor;

(6) assist in the development and evaluation of curriculum and programs for training and retraining pro

fessionals and subprofessionals in work humanization ap

proaches and methods;

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