VOLUNTARY RETIREMENT AT AGE 62 UNDER AGENCY NOTICE(Sanitized)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-01826R000800130008-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 3, 2001
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: April 28, 1961
• Content Type: MF

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s-E-C-R-E-T " ftjS 61-1489
ER 61-3e27
28 April 1961
25X1A
MNtE`gORMDU FOR: Director of Central Intelligence
SUEJECT : Voluntary Retirement at Age 62 Under Agency Notice
1. This memorandum presents a recommendation for your approval in
paragraph 8.
2. The attached letter addressed to you by Mr.
GS-13, OTR, 63 years old, containing a vehement protest against the
Agency's voluntary retirement program, is not an appeal to you for
relief in his own case, but rather a mere expression of his strongly-
25X1A9a held views. Mr. wife, G3-9, 64 years old, is also an Agency
staff employee and is likewise slated to retire in the near future.
3. Mr. Houston, Chairman of the Retirement Board, forwarded this
letter first to me because he felt that, although the Board itself had
had no large-scale reaction against the program, investigation might
disclose the existence among Agency personnel of a considerable body
of unexpressed resentment against the program.
4. From an investigation made by a member of my staff it appears
that there is currently no considerable amount of resentment against
the program, although several of the employees affected have protested
that since they entered on duty relying upon the provisions of Agency
regulations and Civil Service legislation providing a mandatory retire-
ment age of 70, the introduction of-the pressures of the voluntary
5X1A9a
COP Y
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S-E- C-R-E-T (Th
COP Y
retirement program which causes some but not all employees to retire
at age 62 constitutes an unfair change of the rules. In order to sup-
plement the investigation just made, I em arranging for my staff to
interview in the future all employees of grade G6-12 or above who apply
for voluntary retirement. These interviews will be conducted in connec-
tion with our program for' interviewing; all senior employees who resign
from the Agency.
5. You will recall that the program was instituted at the begin-
25X1A nine; of 1960 by Agency Notice entitled "Civil Service
Retirement -- Agency Retirement Board" as a compromise measure at a
time when it was felt impractical to obtain legislation for mandatory
earlier retirement and more adequate annuities at age 62. This notice
was not accompanied by any statement to the employees of the reasons
why early retirement was considered necessary; it does not contain any
statement of the criteria for identifying those exceptional employees
who are to be invited to continue in service after age 62 and it is
silent on the point whether such "voluntary" early retirement was to
be mandatory. A regular Agency regulation is currently being drafted
to replace the notice on this subject and this furnishes an occasion
for reconsiderin ; the formulation of the policy.
6. It is my impression that the program has been administered to
date in a mild, humane manner, with liberal extensions of time being
granted for compassionate (financial) reasons and on grounds of personal
,preference on the part of the employee. The arrant,;ements made in the
Office of Personnel for the pre-retirement counselling of employees
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appear to be effective and highly beneficial in helping employees to
find acceptable solutions of their retirement problems. (This separate
activity is the extent to which a number of the Government agencies
intervene in the matter of early retirement.) On the other hand, the
administration of the program has varied somewhat from component to
component and there are evidences that numerous employees are uncertain
as to the extent to which the voluntary character of early retirement
is being, invaded. Such invasion may perhaps raise a'somewhat delicate
legal problem, in view of the Agency's detailed procedures for terms
nation on the ground of ineffective performance. These points should
be reviewed in connection with the drafting of the new regulation.
7. Finally, there are indications in the press that the Kennedy
Administration is veering towards a position of disfavoring early
retirement, on the grounds of the increased longevity and improved
health throughout the nation, the need to increase productivity by
utilizing all available workers and also the disinclination to accel-
erate the demands on the Civil Service retirement fund, whose current
unfunded liability is reported to be y"31 billion. It is rumored that
the general, subject may be considered in the near future in hearings
before the Senate Civil Service Committee on the pending bills for the
grant to Government workers of the right to retire on full annuities
after thirty years of service, regardless of age.
8. In view of the foregoing considerations, it is recommended
that you instruct the Career Council to re-examine the entire matter
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