UNITED STATES v. KELLY et al.
No. 209.
Argued November 30, 1951.
Decided January 2, 1952.
Saul R. Gamer argued the cause for thé United States. With him on the brief were Solicitor General Perlman, Assistant Attorney General Baldridge, Paul A.' Sweeney and Herman Marcuse.
Henry J. Fox argued the cause and filed a brief for respondents.
Mr. Justice Minton
delivered the opinion of the Court.
The Court of Claims awarded judgment to respondent, a per diem employee of the Government Printing Office, for premium pay and gratuity pay for work performed by him on certain holidays during World War II. 119 Ct. Cl. 197, 96 F. Supp. 611. Thus, respondent was held entitled to the aggregate of:
1. His regular compensation for the days worked;
2. Fifty per cent of his regular compensation as premium pay;
3. A full day’s compensation as gratuity pay.
The.Government sought review of that part of the judgment which awarded gratuity pay to respondent and others like him, and we granted certiorari, 342 U. S. 808.
Respondent’s compensation was fixed by a wage agreement which provides in pertinent part:
“Holiday Rate. Employees required to work on a legal holiday or a special holiday declared by Executive Order shall be paid at the day rate plus 50 per cent for all the time actually employed in addition to their gratuity pay for the holiday as provided by ' law . . . .”
By a 1938 Resolution, the applicable law during the period in question, Congress provided that whenever per diem employees were “relieved or prevented from working solely because of the occurrence of” holidays declared by statute or executive order, “they shall receive the same pay for such days as for other days on which an ordinary day’s work is performed.” The question thus presented is whether the Resolution somehow precludes the awarding of the gratuity pay which the agreement seems to grant.
The 1938 Resolution amended the Act of 1895 which had been consistently administered ag providing for gratuity pay in addition to regular compensation'if.tibe employee worked on a holiday. The Government contends that Congress intended to repeal the earlier statute in this respect, and that the Resolution provided gratuity pay only for holidays on which an employee is “relieved' or prevented from working.”
We think this argument misses the point. The 1938 Resolution established the holidays for which gratuity pay v/as to be allowed. It was silent on the subject of gratuity pay for holidays on which work was performed, and we may even assume that it did not provide gratuity pay for those days. But the wage agreement is not silent on the subject. It provides that when an employee works on a holiday he is to receive regular compensation, premium pay, and gratuity pay “for the holiday a# provided by law.” The holidays “as provided by law” are the days provided for in the 1938 Resolution. Nothing in the Resolution prohibits such a wage agreement, and, indeed, the Government concedes this fact. Merely because the'Resolution itself may not award gratuity pay for holidays worked is no ground for vitiating a wage agreement which does.
The Government points to the 1943 Presidential Directive to federal agencies, under which all holidays except Christmas were to be considered as regular workdays for the duration of the war, and urges that the Directive indicated a policy against the payment of gratuity pay for holidays worked. Clearly, the Presidential Directive was not intended to abrogate the wage agreement.
We need not stop to consider the anomalous results which would stem from the Government’s position. Since the agreement provided for gratuity pay for holidays worked, respondent was entitled to such pay. Accordingly, the judgment below is
Affirmed.
The parties have stipulated that - the' disposition of the claim of -respondent K.elly will be determinative of claims filed by 613 other employees of the Printing Office.
52 Stat. 1246, 5 U. S. C. § 86a.
28 Stat. 601, 607, § 46.
8 Comp. Dec. 322 (1901); 13 Comp. Dec. 40 (1906); 3 Comp. Gen. 411 (1924).
See Digest of Provisions of Law Fixing Pay for Employees in the Executive Branch of die Federal Government (U. S. Civil Service Commission, 1945), at p. 94, note 2; H. R. Rep. No. 514, 79th Cong., 1st Sess., Appendix, p. 94, note 2.
Thus, under the Government’s view an employee who worked five hours on a- holiday would receive his regular compensation plus premium pay, or seven and one-half hours’ pay; if he stayed home all day, he would receive eight hours’ pay.
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the ideological "direction" of the decision ("liberal", "conservative", or "unspecifiable"). Use "unspecifiable" if the issue does not lend itself to a liberal or conservative description (e.g., a boundary dispute between two states, real property, wills and estates), or because no convention exists as to which is the liberal side and which is the conservative side (e.g., the legislative veto). Specification of the ideological direction comports with conventional usage. In the context of issues pertaining to criminal procedure, civil rights, First Amendment, due process, privacy, and attorneys, consider liberal to be pro-person accused or convicted of crime, or denied a jury trial, pro-civil liberties or civil rights claimant, especially those exercising less protected civil rights (e.g., homosexuality), pro-child or juvenile, pro-indigent pro-Indian, pro-affirmative action, pro-neutrality in establishment clause cases, pro-female in abortion, pro-underdog, anti-slavery, incorporation of foreign territories anti-government in the context of due process, except for takings clause cases where a pro-government, anti-owner vote is considered liberal except in criminal forfeiture cases or those where the taking is pro-business violation of due process by exercising jurisdiction over nonresident, pro-attorney or governmental official in non-liability cases, pro-accountability and/or anti-corruption in campaign spending pro-privacy vis-a-vis the 1st Amendment where the privacy invaded is that of mental incompetents, pro-disclosure in Freedom of Information Act issues except for employment and student records. In the context of issues pertaining to unions and economic activity, consider liberal to be pro-union except in union antitrust where liberal = pro-competition, pro-government, anti-business anti-employer, pro-competition, pro-injured person, pro-indigent, pro-small business vis-a-vis large business pro-state/anti-business in state tax cases, pro-debtor, pro-bankrupt, pro-Indian, pro-environmental protection, pro-economic underdog pro-consumer, pro-accountability in governmental corruption, pro-original grantee, purchaser, or occupant in state and territorial land claims anti-union member or employee vis-a-vis union, anti-union in union antitrust, anti-union in union or closed shop, pro-trial in arbitration. In the context of issues pertaining to judicial power, consider liberal to be pro-exercise of judicial power, pro-judicial "activism", pro-judicial review of administrative action. In the context of issues pertaining to federalism, consider liberal to be pro-federal power, pro-executive power in executive/congressional disputes, anti-state. In the context of issues pertaining to federal taxation, consider liberal to be pro-United States and conservative pro-taxpayer. In miscellaneous, consider conservative the incorporation of foreign territories and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states or judcial authority vis-a-vis state or federal legislative authority, and consider liberal legislative veto. In interstate relations and private law issues, consider unspecifiable in all cases.