FUNDS, PRIVATE, ADVANCE OF. Personal funds should not be used to pay Government obligations. except in emergencies or where payment is demanded by the inerchant before delivery of supplies will be made. Persons in a travel status may use private funds to cover personal expenses incident to the travel status and secure reimbursement upon proper vouchers when covered by travel orders. 82655-17 -5 65 GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES MUTUAL RELIEF ASSOCIATION. 1. Purpose. The Government Employees Mutual Relief Association is a cooperative association composed of male employees of the Reclamation Service and other similar Federal services to provide along practical and conservative lines for indemnity for loss of salary, and for medical and burial expenses in cases of illness, accident, or death. Employees, especially those outside of the Washington office, should inform themselves fully as to the purposes of the association, with a view of becoming members. In the past when death or sickness has occurred it has been frequently necessary for friends n the service but little able to bear them, to contribute toward the necessary expenses. The chief purpose of the association is to eliminate entirely the need for contributions of this kind. It is a duty, therefore, of every man in the service, whose sickness or death may entail this burden upon his fellows, to provide against it by becoming a member of the relief association. The employee who will not provide for the future in this or some other way has no moral claim on members of the service when sickness or necessity for financial aid occurs. 2. Federal law. The Government employees' compensation act, approved September 7, 1916 (39 Stat., 742), see p. 511, provides protection to the employee in case of "personal injury sustained while in the performance of his duty, but no compensation shall be paid if the injury or death is caused by willful misconduct of the employee or by the employee's intention to bring about the injury or death of himself or of another or if intoxication of the injured employee is the proximate cause of the injury or death." This act does not cover a large proportion of accidents suffered by Government employees outside of their official duty, nor does it in any way cover cases of illness. The Federal law covers therefore but a fraction of the protection which the employees need. 3. Supplemental relief. The relief association will supplement the Federal law in cases where accident occurs while not on official duty and in all cases of illness. The constitution of the association has been amended recently to make allowances in case of accident while on official duty where partial indemnity is allowed by the Federal law, as in the first three days of disability for which no payment will be made by the United States: also in other cases where the association will pay the difference between the allowance made by the United States and that which can be made by the association, when the latter is larger. For those who have small salaries and are entitled to indemnity for loss of pay, the association will allow full salary when the employee's regular compensation is between $50 and $60 per month. In such cases the United States would only pay two-thirds of the monthly salary. 4. Dues and benefits.-The dues are $12 per year, payable semiannually in advance, with special provisions for payment monthly by those who are not employed on annual salary. The benefits are as follows: $2 per day for loss of time, while not drawing salary. The limit of this benefit is $150 in any period of 12 months. The sick benefits are doctors' fees not exceeding the rate of $28 per week. For surgical operations, when necessary, in addition, according to a scale such as is followed by accident insurance companies; medicine, $5 a week; hire of nurses, $25 a week; hospital expenses, $15 per week; special expenses due to the disablement, $50, the total under this provision not to exceed $300 in any 12 months. In case of death, $200 will be paid to the beneficiary, and when death occurs away from the locality designated as place of burial an additional sum equal to the actual and necessary expense of transporting the body to the designated place of burial, not to exceed $100. 5. Dividends. The constitution of the association provides for a credit dividend applicable to the dues for the last half of the year, equal to the proportional part of the surplus funds on hand in excess of a moderate reserve. This reduces the dues in proportion to actual cost of the insurance, after providing for the reserve. Anyone who has received indemnity in any year can not participate in the dividend for the next year. 6. Exemption from corporate requirements. A proviso in the act approved August 15, 1911 (37 Stat., 16), relative to health, accident, and life insurance companies in the District of Columbia, exempts from its requirements associations composed solely of employees of the United States. HOSPITAL FEES. 1. Cooperative arrangement.-The hospital and medical arrangement provided by the Reclamation Service is cooperative in nature and permits the treatment of sickness, etc., of employees for which no relief is provided by the compensation act of September 7, 1916. (See p. 511.) The service's hospital arrangement will be continued for the benefit of cases not within the scope of the act, but for cases within the said act and to the extent such cases may be benefited by the act, service should not be duplicated under the present hospital arrangement, if duplication can be reasonably avoided. The following regulations apply only to the operation of the cooperative arrangement, and not to the compensation act of September 7, 1916. (See Injuries, Compensation for, p. 76). 2. Deductions from pay.-Provision for caring for injured and sick employees shall be made by deducting a hospital fee, not exceeding $1.50 per month, or fraction thereof per employee, from the salaries of all field employees, except possibly those holding educational and noneducational positions, and except those having homes in the vicinity of the work; specific request in writing shall be made by those desiring to be excepted. This requirement shall not be optional with the employee nor discretionary with the project manager, but shall be contained in the employee's contract of employment, knowledge of which shall be brought to the attention of all employees entering the service or remaining in the service by notices posted in accordance with the regulations approved by the Secretary of the Interior. The provision of a hospital fund is a benefit to the employee in addition to his right to compensation under the act of September 7, 1916, and would be an additional expense charged against the project unless provided by the employees themselves by this monthly assessment. 3. Amount deducted.-For this purpose there shall be deducted a sum not less than $1 nor more than $1.50 per month, as follows, namely, a minimum deduction of 25 cents, and after five days 5 cents per calendar day up to the monthly rate. If at any time during the month an employee receives medical, surgical, or hospital service from the United States, deduction shall be made at the prevailing rate for one full month. 4. Examples cited. (a) Employment from 7th to 13th, with the exception of the 11th-Sunday. Deduction should be made for 7 days. (b) Employment from 2d to 15th, excepting 4th and 6th to 11th, inclusive. If employee was absent under authorized leave and was still in an employment status on the 4th and from the 6th to 11th, deduction should be made for 14 days. If such employee was released on the 5th and reemployed on the 12th, deduction should not be made for the period from the 6th to 11th. (c) Employee works from 8th to 15th, except 10th and 11th. If employee was absent under authorized leave and was still in an employment status on the 10th and 11th, deduction should be made for the full period, 8 days. (d) Employee worked from 1st to 15th with exception of 4th, 5th, 6th, and 11th. The ruling on this case would be under the same principle as noted in (c). (e) Employee worked on the 1st, 2d, 10th, 15th, and 16th. The nature of this employment would seem to indicate that this employee was not in an employment status during the period from the 3d to 9th and from the 11th to 14th. Under these conditions hospital deduction would not be made for these dates and the total hospital deduction for this case would be 25 cents. If, however, this employee was absent on sick leave or other authorized leave during the dates on which no service was performed and could be considered as in an employment status during this time, deduction should be made for the full period from the 1st to the 16th, or 16 days, which at 5 cents per day would amount to 80 cents. 5. Reemployment during month.-In case of reemployment during any calendar month, only one deduction of 25 cents should be made for the first five days during which the employee was in an employment status, even though such employment may not have been continuous, after which the deduction of 5 cents per day should be made up to the full monthly rate. 6. Contract physician. The above scheme of deductions shall not apply on projects where a contract physician is employed at a specified rate inconsistent with the above rates, in which case deduction shall be made in accordance with existing contracts. 7. Prolonged sickness or injury. In case of prolonged sickness or injury, such medical, surgical, and hospital services under this cooperative arrangement shall not be furnished in excess of one year. 8. Employee must remain under observation.-When a sick or injured employee has left the service or the vicinity so that he can be no longer under observation by the officials of the service, any benefits to which he may otherwise be entitled under these regulations shall cease, but so long as he remains under supervision of the local physician employed by the United States, within the limit of one year after the accident or the commencement of his illness, such medical, surgical, and hospital services as he may be entitled to under these H H |