WPA Form 402: Reassignment Slips / Notice to Report for Work on Project - 1936

WPA Form 402 Reassignment Slip, Copy 1 (To Worker for Identification), Works Progress Administration, 1936

WPA Form 402 Reassignment Slip, Copy 1 (To Worker for Identification), Works Progress Administration, 1936 (62329-36-13). GGA Image ID # 1539d4441b

W. P. A. FORM 402 REASSIGNMENT SLIP

W. P. A. Form 402 (Revised 1936-08-15) Notice to Report for Work on Project

Actual size: 6 by 4 inches.
Number of pages: 1.
Prepared by: District office.
When prepared : When reassigning workers from one project to another.
Source of data: Requisition for workers.
Number of copies: 7.

Routing and distribution: Seventh copy retained by district office. Copies 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 sent through the office requisitioning to the project foreman.

If the worker is accepted, the first copy goes to the worker, the foreman signs the second copy and sends it to the payroll unit, and the remaining copies are returned to the district office for distribution.

If the worker is not accepted, the foreman indicates the reason on the face of the second copy, signs it, and returns all copies to the district office.

Copy 1, WPA Form 402 Reassignment Slip Issued on Behalf of Frank Province, Laborer, for a WPA Project Located at Kenwood Park in Saline County, 30 July 1936.

Part 1, WPA Form 402 Reassignment Slip Issued on Behalf of Frank Province, Laborer, for a WPA Project Located at Kenwood Park in Saline County, 30 July 1936. GGA Image ID # 1539bfc374

WPA Form 402 (Revised 1936-08-15) Notice to Report for Work on Project, Part 5 To Worker, Issued to William Frank Province on 17 February 1937

WPA Form 402 (Revised 1936-08-15) Notice to Report for Work on Project, Part 5 To Worker, Issued to William Frank Province on 17 February 1937, Unskilled Laborer on WPA Road Project. GGA Image ID # 153a0d1c6b

WPA Form 402 (Revised 1936-08-15) Notice to Report for Work on Project, Part 5 To Worker, Issued to Frank Province on 19 August 1937

WPA Form 402 (Revised 1936-08-15) Notice to Report for Work on Project, Part 5 To Worker, Issued to Frank Province on 19 August 1937, Skilled Carpenter, at WPA Community Sanitation Project. GGA Image ID # 153a28c931

Assignment to WPA Projects

Workers listed in the awaiting assignment flies, after being classified occupationally, were assigned to suitable work whenever new projects were started, of project employment was expanded, or replacements were required. [Note 1]

Assignment was made by the issuance of a slip—WPA form 402—which was mailed to the applicant; it instructed him to report for work at a certain place on a certain date, and informed him as to the type of work he was to do and the wage rate at which he would be paid.

Assignments were subject to certain preferences established by legislation. In the ERA Act of 1937, Congress established veterans' preference in WPA employment/ Further preferential arrangements were due to the fact that WPA funds were never sufficient to employ all of the persons certified for employment. Questions arose as to whose need was greatest.

Some State welfare officials urged that priority in WPA assignments be given, first, to families of the size (usually four members) that could be entirely maintained by WPA wages and, second, to larger families for whom supplementary direct relief would still be required.

Other welfare officials held that the workers having the greatest need—those with the largest families— should be assigned first. In States where no funds, either State or local, were provided for direct relief to employable persons, sentiment was strong for restricting WPA employment to the wage-earning member of the larger families.

These demands were conflicting, and it was not until 1939 that Congress passed upon them. Preference in terms of relative need was established by Congress in the ERA Act of 1939."

In accordance with this act. the WPA set up two categories of need—families or persons with no income and families or persons with income insufficient for maintenance on a subsistence level. "No income" was interpreted to mean no regular income significant in size when compared with the need of the family or person.

For a time, single persons without dependents were placed in a third category, but it was later decided that they should be placed in one or the other of the first two categories."

The ERA Act, fiscal year 1941, added the requirement that unmarried widows of veterans and wives of unemployable veterans be given the same preference as veterans.

Thus far, the preference given to veterans and their wives and unmarried widows was a preference over other persons within the same category of relative need. However, the ERA acts for the fiscal years 1942 and 1943 gave preference to such veterans and veterans' wives or widows regardless of the relative needs of others.

Note 1 A special defense register file was established in 1940. When a worker was classified in a defense occupation or was qualified for vocational training for defense industry employment, a special card was made out and placed in the appropriate section of the defense register.

United States Federal Works Agency, "Section 3: Employment (Assignment)," in Final Report on the WPA Program, 1935-1943, Washington DC: U.S. Government Print Office, 1946, pp. 20-21.