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Show Merit System For State Employees Under Discussion FORMULATION of uniform personnel regulations and practices prac-tices to apply to all state of Utah employees is cited as a major problem for consideration by the Utah Legislative Council in a research re-search report released by Utah Foundation. The report of the tax-research unit, titled "Peronnel Management Manage-ment in Utah State Government," indicates that three-fourths of regular Utah State employees are governed mainly by he personnel per-sonnel policies of the individual department or agencies for which they work. Four departments depart-ments Health, Welfare, Employment Em-ployment Security, and the Highway Patrol are subject to merit system regulations, but , there is a separate plan for each of the four departments. These departments administer their respective re-spective civil service plans through a Merit System Council, established by co-operative agreement. agree-ment. The State Board of Examiners in 1939 issued a set of regulations regula-tions applying to conditions of employment, vacations, sick leave, and other factors of personnel per-sonnel management, but since administration is left to individual individ-ual departments with no machinery machin-ery for uniform application of the' rules, practices among the various employing agencies varies. var-ies. ADVOCATES of a civil service plan contend that it provides for selection of personnel on the basis ba-sis of fitness and ability without regard to political, religious, or other affiliation, according to the Utah Foundation report. It is also al-so claimed that a civil service plan tends to free employees from political restraint in the performance of their duties. These aims are accomplished by the establishment of written rules governing salary, promotions, promo-tions, transfers, demotions, layoffs, lay-offs, sick leave, vacation, retire ment, and other conditions of employment. Opponents of civil service contend con-tend that it tends to freeze employees em-ployees in their positions, reducing re-ducing the responsibility for efficiency ef-ficiency by protecting office tenure. ten-ure. It is also claimed that civil service status conflicts with party par-ty responsibility for the conduct of state business. In commenting, the Utah Foundation Foun-dation report states: "Salaries of the twenty-eight commissioners represent annual administrative salary overhead of $126,000, in addition to substantial travel costs. The question has been raised as to the advisability of replacing some or all of the three-man commissions with non-salaried non-salaried representative boards, and qualified single department heads. This would permit higher salary scales to be adopted to attract the most competent professional pro-fessional and technical administrators, adminis-trators, at a net saving in total administrative cost." |