CASE PROCESSING AND INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS OF THE PAY BOARDPHASE II

INTRODUCTION

Pursuant to the goals of the Economic Stabilization Program, the Pay Board was responsible for stabilizing wages and salaries, and thus for developing specific criteria and standards that established permissible wage and salary increases as well as grounds for exceptions in certain circumstances. Three fundamental concepts were inherent in these goals of the Stabilization Program: the type of increases subject to measurement or control; the unit over which increases were measured (e.g., individual firm, industry), and the period of time over which the increases were measured. The definition of these three concepts provided the frame of reference for the Pay Board regulations concerning computation, reporting, exceptions, and compliance. The Pay Board measured increases in "wages and salaries" as an aggregate of increases paid to a group of employees, referred to as an "appropriate employee unit," over a period of time, called a "control year."

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The general guideline standard for wage increases was set at 5.5% while the coverage, classification and reporting requirements concentrated on the size of the economic unit.

1. Category I covered units of 5,000 or more workers who were required to prenotify and receive Board approval on all new wage increases.

2. Category II covered units of 1,000 to 4,999 workers who were required to prenotify and receive Board approval for all new wage increases above the guidelines. All new wage increases within the guidelines required reporting.

3. Category III covered units of fewer than 1,000 workers who were required to prenotify all new increases above the guidelines through the Internal Revenue Service and receive IRS or Board approval.

1 For a more detailed discussion and definition of technical terms see 6 CFR Section 201.3.

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Applications for wage increases submitted to the Board or IRS became known as "cases"; firms were required to report such applications on standard forms prepared by the Pay Board. The initial reporting forms were the PB-1 and the PB-2. (See Exhibits 1 and 2). The PB-1 form was used for reporting adjustments under collective bargaining agreements; the PB-2 form was used for reporting adjustments for employees not under collective bargaining agreements. In June, 1972, a new form, the PB-3 (See Exhibit 3) superseded the PB-1 and 2. Its requirements incorporated all of the Pay Board rules and regulations and were applicable to both union and non-union situations. This form continued to be used until December, 1974.

ORGANIZATIONAL CONCEPT

At the inception of the Pay Board, in November, 1971, the nucleus of what was to be the Pay Board staff, conducted the initial development of an organizational plan along with the functional responsibilities of each of the proposed offices.

The Pay Board was tripartite in nature, with 5 members representing labor, 5 representing business and 5 public members, all appointed by the President. Only the Chairman, who was one of the 5 public members, served on a full time basis. The Board was supported by a staff of approximately one hundred and forty persons under the direction of an Executive Director.

In addition to the Office of the Chairman and the Office of the Executive Director, the staff was divided into six offices as shown in Figure 1.

1. The General Counsel provided legal advice and service, and was responsible for the drafting and promulgation of those regulations and interpretations established by the Pay Board. 2. The Executive Secretariat was responsible for the Board agenda, minutes, official records, and for communicating Board decisions to affected parties.

3. The Administrative Office provided administrative support to the members and staff, including budget, personnel, financial and other logistical and housekeeping services.

'It should be noted that I. W. Abel, George Meany and Floyd E. Smith resigned from the Board on March 22, 1972, and Leonard Woodcock resigned on March 23, 1972. The four labor members charged that the Stabilization Program offered "no fairness, no equity and no justice.” On March 23, President Nixon issued Executive Order 11660 providing for the reorganization of the Pay Board. Membership on the Board was reduced to 7 public members, consisting of 1 labor and 1 business member, and the five existing public members. It was stressed, however, that all of the old Board's rules and regulations would “remain in full force."

4. The Operations Control Office had responsibility for develop

ment, implementation, coordination and control of the operational system of the Pay Board. Included was the overall flow of cases, mail and items requiring staff action; maintenance of an inventory of work in process and monitoring of the effectiveness of staff operations; and providing systems and procedures advice and service to all Board offices. 5. The Economic Policy and Case Analysis Office performed economic and statistical research; prepared cases and policy issues for Board consideration; provided an adjudication function and made initial disposition of those cases delegated to it by the Board.

6. Public and Congressional Affairs Office served as coordinator for distribution of information for the public, the press and the Congress.

A manual procedure for handling cases and information pertaining to the cases developed quickly out of sheer necessity to manage and control the ever increasing flow of correspondence and submissions being received at the Pay Board. This system, far from being sophisticated, was established in late December, 1971, and underwent continuous modifications as circumstances and requirements changed. The three major functional offices primarily involved with case processing were the Operations Control Office, the Economic Policy and Case Analysis Office, and the Pay Board. Although the functions within these offices became numerous, only those functions that dealt primarily with the systems flow will be addressed in this section.

Functional Areas

Operations Control Office

Within the Operations Control Office were four major functional areas.

The Distribution Center

Their function included receipt and general classification of all incoming Pay Board mail. Once classified, administrative and personal mail were handled outside of the systems flow and went directly to the addressee. Correspondence requiring action by the Pay Board or staff and substantive opinion mail was:

1. Assigned a numerical identifier or control number;

2. Logged in a notebook as to date and time of receipt;

3. Placed in a folder with an attached location control form or "snowflake";

4. Forwarded to the Screening Center.