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Job Evaluation

The program for converting to the new Job Evaluation program brought problems re-

lating to the down-grading of the Protective Force at LAFO and the related security positions,

including Shipment Security positions at other field offices; of insuring that operating officials understood and carried out the technical requirements of the system; and of exercising
adequate controls on the application of the system on a decentralized basis, including the

device of accumulative audit and plans for appropriate field audits.

Conversion to the AEC Job Evaluation program had a special significance in Santa Fe
Operations particularly with respect to the Protective Force. For one thing, SFOO had

been the first Operations Office to initiate the idea of a job evaluation system based upon

factor analysis and point rating. It was primarily because of this initiative and the identification of SFO with this type of an approach that SFOO sponsored experimental activity by

the AEC "Workshop Group" in developing the present AEC system.

In the Summer of 1950,

the AEC Workshop Group consisting of personnel technicians from all of the Operations Offices spent something over two weeks at Los Alamos. The topstaff of SFOO made a significant contribution to the development of the present system by undertaking the first trial application of the tentative system developed by the Workshop Group.
The earliest questions raised or the indication of apprehension on the part of members

of the Protective Force at Los Alamos as to possibility of down-grading their jobs emerged
during the course of this trial application.

The conclusion of the Workshop Committee at

that time was that a special study of AEC Security Inspector and Guard positions was clearly
indicated because of the apparent overgrading of the Los Alamos Inspector‘position considered
in relation to guard positions at Idaho Falls and Oak Ridge.
Pending issuance of the official AEC Salary Administration Handbooks in April of 1952,

SFO continued to utilize, for job evaluation purposes, the tentative standards and procedures
utilized in this trial application, except that the tentative system developed no standards
suitable for application to the Protective Force at Los Alamos. Inasmuch as the AEC sys-

tem, when finally released, represented in many respects significant refinements of the
tentative system which was in current use, extreme care was exercised in converting to
the official system when it became necessary to develop new descriptions of duties and responsibilities and to make the required factor analyses relating to the job descriptions. The
conversion program, initiated in July 1952, resulted in a considerable process of rewriting
and rereviewing job descriptions and analyses. Conversion was accomplished effective
June 21, 1953.
There were 1,479 encumbered positions in SFO which were evaluated under the AEC

Salary Administration program for salaried positions, and 46 additional encumbered positions were pending conversion until current organizational questions had been resolved by
the responsible operating officials. Altogether there were 1,539 positions evaluated under
this conversion program, including 60 vacant positions. Of the 1,479 encumbered positions,

83 were revised upward in grade, and 471 were revised downward.

Inspector Positions at Los Alamos

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_ The downward revisions included readjustment of all of the Inspector posi fons on the
Los Alamos Protective Force. The possibility that downward revision of the grade value
of these particular Protective Force positions would have an impact had been anticipated

for some time. It had been considered and understood by SFO and Washington management
that the possibility of downgrading these jobs would have a serious effect on the morale and

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