Executive Order 1108

by President of the United States

The regulations heretofore established by the President governing the employment of unskilled laborers in federal offices outside of Washington, D. C., are hereby amended and the regulations now promulgated shall be in lieu of others heretofore in force.

I. Board of Labor Employment.

Section 1. A board of labor employment shall be appointed by the United States Civil Service Commission from the members of its own force for each of the United States civil-service districts, and shall consist of the following officials:

The district secretary of each district, who shall be ex officio chairman of the board of labor employment.

An agent and a recorder, whose various duties shall be prescribed from time to time by the Commission.

Sec. 2. In addition to the three members of the board for the entire district, the Commission shall in each city outside of the district headquarters where these regulations are in force, appoint a person in the federal service in that city as an auxiliary member of the board, who shall serve as a full member of the board in connection with the appointment of unskilled laborers in the service in such city and who shall perform such duties as the Commission may from time to time prescribe.

Sec. 3. In the event that in any civil-service district there is not a sufficient number of the Commission's employees available, detail may be made to the Commission's force for the filling of vacancies in the labor employment board, until the Commission shall have men of its own to relieve such detail.

Sec. 4. Necessary changes from time to time may be made in the personnel of said board by the Commission, and all the work and duties of said board shall be performed under the direction and subject to review and final action in each case by the Commission.

Sec. 5. At such offices or manufacturing establishments as have regulations governing the classified service and an organized board of examiners, such board may in the discretion of the Commission also act as a board of labor employment.

II. Qualifications of Applicants.

Section 1. No person shall be admitted to examination who is not a citizen of the United States, or who is less than 20 or more than 60 years of age, except that veterans of the civil war who have been honorably discharged may be examined without regard to their age.

Sec. 2. The board may refuse to register an applicant for the following reasons:

(a) Dismissal from the public service—federal, state, or municipal—for misconduct within one year preceding.

(b) Physical or mental unfitness.

(c) Criminal, infamous, dishonest, immoral, or notoriously disgraceful conduct.

(d) Intentionally making a false statement in any material fact or practicing deception or fraud in securing registration or appointment.

(e) Habitual intoxication.

Sec. 3. Application for examination shall be made in such form and manner, and be accompanied by such certificates, as the Commission may prescribe.

Sec. 4. No information shall be received or considered concerning the political or religious opinions or affiliations of any applicant.

III. Ratings and Eligibility.

Section 1. Applicants shall be rated on a scale of 100 upon their physical qualifications and apparent ability to perform manual labor, by a physician designated by the Commission. Competitors shall be duly notified of their rating.

Sec. 2. Upon completion of the physical examinations the board shall enter upon registers, by sex, the names of applicants rated at 85 or more, as follows:

Male eligibles:

(a) Persons honorably discharged from the Army or Navy of the United States by reason of wounds or disability incurred in line of duty, in the order of their physical rating.

(b) Honorably discharged veterans of the civil war, in the order of their physical rating.

(c) All others in order of physical rating.

Female eligibles will be entered on the registers in the order of physical rating.

Sec. 3. The period of eligibility shall be one year from the date of entry upon the register; but eligible registers may be extended for a longer time by the direction of the Commission, when such action is deemed necessary in the interests of the service.

Sec. 4. A copy of the register shall be kept in a place accessible to the public in the office of the district secretary of the district in which the applicants are eligible, and elsewhere as the Commission may direct.

IV. Appointment.

Section 1. Any position or employment of a mere laborer or workman in the unclassified service, unless filled by reinstatement, transfer, promotion, or reduction, shall be filled in the following manner:

(a) The nominating or appointing officer shall request the certification of eligibles, specifying sex and principal duties of the position, and the board shall certify from the proper register the three names at the head thereof, of the sex specified, which may not have been certified three times to the office in which the vacancy exists. The Commission may, however, in any civil-service district, certify from its register the three standing highest thereon shown by said register to possess the requisite qualifications for the position to be filled.

(b) The nominating or appointing officer shall make selection from the three names certified, with sole reference to fitness, unless he shall offer written objections which the board, with the approval of the Commission, may deem sufficient, in which case a new certificate shall be issued, omitting the names of those to whom objection has been made.

(c) The person selected for appointment shall be duly notified by the appointing officer, and upon reporting for duty shall be given a fair trial of his conduct and capacity.

Sec. 2. A laborer separated without misconduct may, upon written application, be restored to the register of eligibles for his remaining period of eligibility, or may be reemployed, without further certification, in the office from which he was separated at any time within one year.

Sec. 3. When a demand for appointment or employment arises which can not be met in the manner provided in section 1, a person whose name is either not on the register or not in turn for certification may be appointed temporarily; but such appointment shall continue only during the continuance, in the judgment of the Commission, of the conditions which necessitated it, and no such person shall be thus employed more than thirty days in any period of twelve months, except as provided in Regulation VI hereof.

Sec. 4. A person appointed to an unclassified position shall not be assigned to work of a classified competitive position, and shall not be transferred or promoted to such a position except in accordance with the executive order of April 21, 1909, viz:

The executive order made by President Roosevelt of date March 30, 1905, recites as follows:

"With the view that hereafter under no circumstances whatever shall any unclassified laborer be assigned to classified work, I direct that the additional laborers referred to as shown in reports already made to the Civil Service Commission be regarded as classified in the positions occupied by them on the date of this order, and that they may be promoted to the clerical grade or transferred in the manner provided by the civil-service rules and regulations."

It appears that in certain cases the work of various departments, independent offices and bureaus is of such character that it can not be economically and conveniently done consistently with a rigorous adherence to the division between classified and unclassified work. In such cases unclassified laborers are engaged for the greater part of their time on unclassified work, but at the same time there is certain classified work which could be more economically and conveniently done if such laborers were permitted to do it incidentally, and not as a part of their main work or employment.

It is therefore ordered that hereafter where such a state of things exists as is above recited unclassified laborers may be assigned to classified work incidentally, but not as a part of their main work, in cases where such work can not be conveniently and economically done by classified employees, but never without the prior consent of the Civil Service Commission, obtained before such assignment, and with a view to the doing of the particular classified work in question by unclassified employees.

V. Removals.

Section 1. No laborer shall be removed except for such cause as, in the judgment of the head of the office, will promote the efficiency of the service, and no trial or hearing shall be required except at the discretion of the officer making the removal.

Sec. 2. The reasons for any removal shall be made of record in the office in which the person is serving, and shall be open to the inspection of the board and the Commission.

Sec 3. Heads of offices shall require assistant superintendents or foremen of divisions or crews to make monthly reports showing specifically the kind of labor performed by the unclassified laborers in their charge, which report shall be open to the inspection of the board and the Commission.

VI. Demotions, Transfers, and Extensions of Temporary Service.

Section 1. The Commission shall have authority to authorize:

(a) The demotion of any person from the classified service to the position of mere unskilled laborer, and the appointment of such person, in consequence of such demotion, upon his passing the required physical examination, to the position of mere unskilled laborer; a statement of duties in every case to be attached to the application of the department for such demotion, showing the duties of the person proposed to be demoted in the old and new position;

(b) The transfer of any mere unskilled laborer from any office or bureau to another, provided that such unskilled laborer is in good standing and has had at least six months' experience, and the qualifications in the new position are the same as those in the old;

(c) The temporary appointment of a mere unskilled laborer for a period to exceed thirty days in cases of great and evident necessity.

VII. Report of Appointments and Changes.

Section 1. If a position of laborer requires, in connection with the usual duties of mere laborer, the performance of work of the grade done by classified employees, it should be filled from a register for the classified service and not under these regulations. No person who is to perform manual labor merely, in cities where the labor regulations are in force, shall be appointed otherwise than in accordance with these regulations.

Sec. 2. Nominating or appointing officers in cities where these regulations are in force shall make monthly reports of appointments and changes in the status of all laborers to the Commission and shall state specifically in each case of appointment or change of duties the kind of labor performed and, where the laborer is assigned to more than one kind of work, approximately the length of time assigned to classified and unclassified work daily. The board of labor employment shall have access to the pay rolls for the purpose of checking up said reports.

VIII. Extension of the Regulations.

The Commission is authorized to extend the application of these regulations to federal offices in other cities than those in which they are now in force.

Wm. H. Taft.

The White House,

July 3, 1909.