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Western Union Messengers to Get Full 75-Cent Pay Scale,
U.S. Rules
New York Times, September 19, 1950
Company Sought 66-Cent Level
WASHINGTON, Sept 18 tame Wage-Hour Administration refused today to let
the
Western Union Telegraph Company hire messengers below the
75-cent-an-hour
minimum wage.
The company, at hearings last October, said it wanted to employ its
foot
and bicycle messengers at 65 cents an hour instead of the 75 cents
specified
in the wage-hour law. The higher rate would add $1,128,000 to its
payroll,
it said.
Western Union argued that if it was required to pay the legal minimum,
it
would have to eliminate 354 jobs for messengers, substituting instead
wider
use of telephones, small motorcycles, and messenger stations.
Formal notice of the action of Wage-Hour Administrator William R.
McComb
will be published in The Federal Register Wednesday.
Mr. McComb, advising Secretary of Labor Maurice J. Tobin of his
decision,
said it had been based on the findings and recommendations of Presiding
Officer
Isabel Ferguson, who heard the company's case.
The decision was concurred in by Deputy Administrator F. Granville
Grimes
Jr., the Wage-Hour Division head.
Mr. Grimes, who presided at some of the hearings, said the company had
not
shown a proper basis for its request and had failed to establish the
feasibility
of its program far adopting alternative means of delivering messages.
The company's application was opposed by the commercial Telegraphers
Union,
A. F. L., which represents employees in Western Union offices outside
metropolitan
New York City, the American Communication Association, which holds
bargaining
fights for New York City, and the Child Labor Committee.
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