A Pragmatic Approach To Government Employment Relations By W. Willard Wirtz U. S. Secretary of Labour The recent convention in Washington of the American Federation of State Country and Municipal Employees, which I had the privilege of addressing, has focused fresh attention on labour-management relations in public employment. Without going into detail, I suggested several guidelines for developing in the United States a pragmatic, instead of a dogmatic, doctrine of government employment relations. First. That it should be accepted generally that some effective form of bilateral and representational labour relations is inevitable, proper, and desirable in government employment in the United States. It is a mistake to think of this as exclusively a matter of employee rights. Half the case for collective bargaining is that the enterprise operates better, in the long run and the broader view, if there is constructive employee participation affairs. in its unilaterally. The attempt to set up new rules unilaterally would be inevitably selfdefeating. Third. That to whatever extent the development of new doctrines of government employment relationships is focused or permitted to centre around the argument about whether there is a "right of public employees to strike,” the development would be at best delayed, at defeated. current Labour's understandable feeling is that every time it has relied much on "a decent respect for the opinions of mankind," mankind has responded with remarkably indecent opinions. And labour's mood is in general that it gains more from controversy than from concensus. The fact remains that every strike by government employees creates at least as great a crisis of public opinion as it does a crisis of transportation or education or whatever else may be involved. The fact remains that every strike by government employees creates at least as great a crisis of public opinion as it does a crisis of education or transportation or whatever else may be involved. Fourth. That the basic principle should be to provide for maximum practicable participation of government employees in developing and in administering their employment relationship. ployment relationship. Each of t'e three words, "maximum practicable participation," carries a full cargo of meaning-and some trouble. A good deal of this meaning, and some of the trouble, can be taken from experience in the area of private labour relations. The interests involved are substantially the same. Where there are differences which make traditional private application of the basic principles impracticable, there should They dictate adequate provision by agreement, executive order or statute, for organizational and representational rights for all government employees, substantially similar to those provided in American labour legislation affecting private employees. This includes unqualified provision for resolution by a separate agency of any disputes regarding organization and representation which may arise, and provision too, for union security. It is harder to be specific about the appropriate authority and responsibility of the government employees' union in setting the basic terms of the employment relationship. This necessarily depends, as a practical matter, on the nature and the sufficiency of the legislative processes that are provided. Wages and other money issues present the greatest difficulty. It is pointless to disregard the fact that in the usual situation the government employer, in a practical sense, is part of the executive department and that the money involved must come through another, and proudly "separate," power within the government. But this avoiding its responsibilities as an employer. is no legitimate excuse for the government's It is an essential element of a government employment policy that there be some table, some place, whether in the executive or some independent office, where employee representatives can sit across the table from somebody with the authority and the courage to say "I will" or "I won't" instead of "I can't." The concept of establishing "comparability" of government wages and salaries with those paid privately in similar occupations has become an important, and I think, comparatively satisfactory principle of U. S. Government practice. Experience is showing the value of using special boards and independent committees in the administra SPUN CASTINGS & ENGINEERING 77/5, Banaras Road, HOWRAH-I. tion and application of the comparability of their "essentiality" is fruitless. Policemen principle. The "right to strike" question arises inevitably here. Any answer to this question which is cast in terms of absolutes, and as though this is even a legitimate question standing alone, seems to me wrong. The Condon Wadlin Act in New York State is a glaring illustration of the unfairness, the absurdity, and the ineffectiveness of outlawing the strike without any provision whatsoever for alternative procedures for settling the honest and legitimate issues which might cause a strike. I disagree, if it is a separate proposition, with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Emyloyees' endorsement of the government employees' right to strike. Their support of voluntary arbitration means, however, that they face squarely and constructively the eesential question of alternative procedures. The occasional attempt to distinguish between governmental functions in terms and firemen are no more essential than school teachers, it is only that the costs and losses from doing without the police and fire departments are more dramatic and immediate. Every government function is essential in the broadest the ΟΙ sense, TOWN AND COUNTRY PLANNING DEPARTMENT UTTAR PRADESH Has Presented Master Plans For Lucknow And Kanpur Public Participation In Form Of Suggestion Is Invited To Make The Schemes To Conform To Public Needs. Educating New Electors In Holland Recently there have been important elections in Holland. Naturally it is not our task to comment on the results of these insofar as they affect the political situation in the try. But nevertheless we want to use the election idea to talk about a most interesting development in Holland connected with voting. As in other countries, Holland, with every new election, of course, sees a number of new electors who have reached voting age since the previous election. In the recent Dutch election these totalled about 350,000, and although it is not possible to say whether this influx really made any difference in the state of the respective parties, the fact that voting attendance is compulsory in Holland raises the question as to how these new electors make up their minds to vote. That is to say, do they follow the family political line, or do they have any ideas of their own? These are intriguing questions and after some enquires, it was learned that here it is not so much bow the new young electors will vote but whether they understand what voting really means. A large number of Dutch Municipalities make a special point of contacting each young person reaching voting age to ensure that a citizen's responsibilities are fully understood. Seldom is there any attempt to work along party lines, but almost everywhere it is only a case of telling the new voters what voting means and how necessary it is for the voter to know why the vote is being made and what can be the conseque nces. was The pioneer in this movement Utrecht, where the burgomaster some years. ago prepared a simple booklet telling of the responsibilities and duties of citizenship, and then invited each annual crop of new voters to a reception at the Town Hall at which a short explanatory speech was made followed by a music recital by the Burgomaster himself, who is a famous pianist. For a number of years Utrecht stood alone. But more recently other Municipalities have joined in. Some of them are content to send a booklet on citizenship accompanied by some information about general constitutional procedure. But others are very imaginative. In The Hague, for example, a number of "Citizens' Days" are held to which new young voters are invited in turn. The meetings are held in the Old Town Hall, and on arrival selection is made from the young people for seating them in the red plush chairs of the Council Chamber to act as Aldermen and Councillors representing different parties, but all chosen at random. After a general talk on the Municipality is run, and how the national Government is conducted, a local problem is announced and the youngsters are asked to discuss it and finally take a vote on it. One recent discussion, for example, dealt with whether the beach promenade at Scheveningen should be closed to vehicular traffic in the interests of pedestrians, or whether there should be restrictions such as speed, hours and stopping. This proved a very lively topic which gave the new voters a speedy insight into the rules of debate, the fun of argument and counter-argument, and the principles of democratic voting. Half a dozen of these meetings, with the Burgomaster watching from the Public Gallery and one or two Aldermen sprinkled among the youngsters, are remarkably successful in promoting the duties and responsibilities of citizenship. This method, in fact, is a sort of do-it-yourself system of developing the political sense. In the city of Eindhoven all new voters are taken on a tour of the town in buses, with members of the Council explaining the different civic problems and how they are dealt with. In Rotterdam every new voter gets a personal letter of congratulation from the Burgomaster; Haarlem arranges talks by various political leaders, and then ends up the evenings with a dance by candle-light; Amsterdam sends each new voter a book entitled, "We give you the key to our city," while in Leeuwarden evening debates are organised on current problems, followed by and worked. a film showing how President Kennedy lived But no matter what method is used, this introduction to citizenship in Holland seems to be a most praiseworthy effort. Courtesy: Radio Nederland (Continued from Page 70 ) employment relations is one that assures a reasonable and fair procedure, with independent third party determination if necessary, for settling new contract disputes, and which therefore does not include the strike. Finally, there is the question by the government employees' union in the administration of employment relationship, with the handling of grievances as an example. In my view, there should be such participation to at least as full an extent as has developed under private collective bargaining, including full provision for independent arbitration of unresolved differences regarding the application of the employment rules-whether they are the product of bargaining or of legislation. Government employees have at least as much to offer in this process as to private employees, perhaps in some cases more. Government employers, furthermore, NEED OF THE HOUR Second by second, minute by minute....... runs non-stop. ........time runs on. It So does interest on 'RECURRING DEPOSIT' with the U.P. Cooperative Bank Ltd., Lucknow. In hour of need you can count upon these small savings even when time runs against you. For prudent persons of your placing U. P. COOPERATIVE BANK LTD, LUCKNOW 'RECURRING DEPOSIT' is a must. Contact, write or ring up for details: TODAY Phones: 23269; 22419; 26806 UTTAR PRADESH COOPERATIVE BANK LTD., LUCKNOW. |