2

1

2

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 govern

ment, management, and unions;

(7) promising efforts to deal with the problems of alienation carried out in this country and in Europe are

24 not widely known.

25

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

3

1 Health, Education, and Welfare are hereby authorized to 2 either directly or by way of grant, contribution, or other

3 arrangement—

(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 respon

sibility 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 patterns, autonomous work groups, and additional op 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,

4

1

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 training 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 De

partment of Labor;

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

fessionals and subprofessionals in work humanization approaches and methods;

1

4

དོ

5

(7) conduct pilot projects for a variety of experi

ments in both blue collar and white collar work redesign

in selected Federal agencies to determine their effect in improved employee job satisfaction.

(b) in carrying out the research and technical assistance program authorized by this section, the Secretaries shall 7 consult with the National Institute of Mental Health, the 8 National Science Foundation, the National Institute for Oc9 capational Safety and Health, and representatives of workers, unions, management, academic, and medical experts.

11

(c) Each December 31, the Secretaries shall file an an12 nual report including any recommendations for further legis13 lation with the Congress. The Secretaries also shall file an 14 interim report no later than six months after passage of the 15 Act.

16

SEC. 4. The Secretary of Health, Education, and Wel17 fare, in consultation with the Administrator of the General 18 Services Administration, is directed to insure that Federal 19 agencies seek to maximize job satisfaction of their workers 20 and consider that factor in the design of new Federal 21 facilities.

22 SEC. 5. The Secretary of Labor and the Secretary of 23 Health, Education, and Welfare shall consult with each other 24 concerning the implementation of this Act for the purpose of

6

1 avoiding duplication or conflict in the activities of their re

2 spective Departments under this Act.

3 SEC. 6. There is hereby authorized an appropriation of

4 $10,000,000 in fiscal year 1973 and $10,000,000 in fiscal 5 year 1974 to carry out the provisions of this Act.