We are also moving the emphasis toward a straightforward approach to enforcement. That law has a very worthy purpose, of course; namely, to give wage earners the benefit and protection of their pension money. The age-old concept of fiduciary responsibility for trustees is what we are concerned about.

We want to make sure that their funds are protected and recovered, if possible, where they have been misused or embezzled.

We are moving away from what we saw as too much of an effort to embroider on and rewrite that law to develop it into some kind of detailed set of rules on how to behave; not that that isn't necessary to some extent. Exemptions are part of it. But rather than approach it on a case-by-case basis, we are looking to see if we can't arrive at broader class exemptions that will save those subject to the law from having to come in and present detailed and specific exemptions.

VETERANS' REEMPLOYMENT

The veterans' reemployment program is small in terms of numbers of personnel. It is a very important program, of course. And we are looking there to better efforts to facilitate cases, better efforts to combine similar cases, so that our efforts at litigation will be more productive in terms of reaching a broader class case with the resources we have available to it.

Our labor-management relations services program is not as well known, but in the long run, it could be one of the most important that we have. This is a program that keeps track of major negotiations, advises the Secretary and President on the progress of major negotiations, and strikes that are ongoing.

It also has a responsibility to keep track of the general state of labormanagement relations in the country. We are making a major effort there to look at the problems of productivity, problems of national labor policy, labor-management relations, to see what we can do to make them less adversarial, to make them more realistic in terms of the alined purposes and long-range benefits to workers and employers.

We have studied some of the new approaches to labor-management relations. We have tried some of them ourselves within the Department. We are trying to act as a clearinghouse for those experiences so that others might be aware of them and have a look at them.

One of my general conclusions is that there is no one program or no one formula that will work. What will work in one industry may not work in another. What will work in one part of the country may not work in another. But we certainly have not been doing as well as we should.

Senator ABDNOR. Thank you for that review of your activities. I don't deny you have quite a load to handle down there. It may not be one of the ones that is getting all the attention in the news. But it is a very important part.

You already, through your various responsibilities, have touched upon the veterans' reemployment rights, and we have some thoughts in that area as well as questions.

The number of veterans' reemployment cases that were pending at the end of the year were projected to increase, I guess, from 966 in fiscal year 1981 to as high as 3,370 in fiscal year 1983.

Now, why does this backlog of veterans' cases more than triple in 2 years? Is there any obvious reason for this?

Mr. DOTSON. In terms of the number of filings, is that what you are concerned with?

Senator ABDNOR. Yes.

Mr. DOTSON. Well, I think there is a combination of reasons for it. Of course, we have this large number of people who fall under the protection of that law. I am one of them.

And then, we have the downturn in the economy, tremendous competition for positions. And as you know, it has become the usual thing now for people who are discouraged and frustrated in their efforts to find employment to try anything and everything they can.

Whether their case has merit or not, it is a common thing now for people to file every charge they know how to file in their effort to get a job. And that is no general comment on the merit of many of those charges, nor is it an adverse comment on those who file. It is a natural, and I think understandable, response.

Senator ABDNOR. I guess that is almost a tripling. So you think that unusual conditions brought this about. It has, I guess, almost tripled in the last period of 2 years. So you think more and more people do reserve their fiscal rights.

How long does a veteran wait before his case is processed? Do you have that?

Mr. DOTSON. I think Mr. Gonzalez has that. We can file that for the record, or we can ask Mr. Gonzalez directly.

Senator ABDNOR. If you have it, fine.

Mr. GONZALEZ. We can be more specific, Mr. Chairman, on the record, but in those cases that need immediate attention, we do give them immediate attention under our strategy plan.

I am referring, of course, to those cases where the issue is reinstatement or possible unlawful discharge. We do move quickly on those

cases.

Does this respond to your question?

Senator ABDNOR. Yes; and then the average one does take much longer to process, I suppose.

Mr. GONZALEZ. We can give you information on that for the record. [The information follows:]

PROCESSING VETERAN COMPLAINT CASES

Some complaints can be resolved readily-or the same day they are received-by a telephone call and a brief explanation of the statute to the employer. Other cases, such as those involving a dispute as to the facts and thus requiring investigation; or those involving disagreement as to the application of the statute and therefore may need a case conference with the parties or may warrant litigation; these take considerably more time. Cases involving reinstatement or unlawful discharge receive first priority. Cases involving other issues, such as seniority, status, rate of pay or pension entitlements, are worked on a first-in, first-out basis. Overall, currently the average time it takes to process a case from opening to closing is 103.1 days.

PLANS FOR REDUCING BACKLOG

Senator ABDNOR. We will probably have additional questions for you. A lot of them come to mind, but I would rather than take a lot of time today say a lot of them can very well be answered in writing. And we look forward to submitting some.

Do you have any plans for speeding this up or reducing this backlog? Or is it just your hopes that the economy is going to get better and people will find jobs and have less need?

Mr. GONZALEZ. Well, we have a number of productivity measures underway that will address the possible or probable elimination of time that we can save in terms of paperwork, especially on those cases that are not actionable and that we can respond to right away without any unnecessary review.

Mr. GERMAN. At this time, Mr. Chairman, it does not look as if the backlog will be quite as bad in 1982 or 1983 as we projected in this budget. As you know, this was put together some time ago.

The current number of cases in the pipeline at the present time stands around the 700 level. The projection through the end of the year leads us to conclude it will not be quite as bad as you see in these numbers before you today.

Senator ABDNOR. Good. I guess maybe it is understandable to have the large projection with the economy like it is, but we also know that certainly, if that were to occur, the backlog could to a great degree have a heck of a wallop and have a lot of people screaming at you.

I was wondering how it was. But you don't foresee any great problems handling that?

Mr. GERMAN. I think, sir, it will rise beyond what it was at the end of 1981, but not to the levels, hopefully, we suggested in the budget year before you. There have been some productivity improvements which we expect to continue to enable us to handle these cases better and more quickly.

Senator ABDNOR. Fine.

Mr. ST. CYR. I might also add that those cases that are in the backlog are not priority 1 cases. They do not involve reinstatement-type issues. And we are working on them from the oldest case first method so that we don't face any problems at all where timeliness is concerned.

We reduce them on the basis of the first one in is the first one out.

PAPERWORK REQUIREMENTS

Senator ABDNOR. Fine.

You do have a lot, obviously, of paperwork in your office. I guess no one can deny that, with the different areas you work in. But I am sure you made some progress in fiscal 1982.

But paperwork seems to be on the rise again in 1983. For example, the number of reports filed under the Landrum-Griffin Act is projected to increase by 8 percent. Also, the Department is expected to receive 1 million reports under ERISA the same year, the same as you had in 1981.

Now, what are you doing with all this paper?

Mr. DOTSON. Most of that paper is essential to the enforcement of the statutes Congress has given us to enforce. And, of course, a lot of that increase is just the result of more people or more entities becoming subject to reporting requirements.

We are also cutting back as much as we can within the framework on the reporting requirements.

Senator ABDNOR. Then, do you find we here in Congress talking one way about cutting out paperwork and giving you more and more to do? I am not trying to get you in trouble with Congress, but I know sometimes we are guilty of that. Has that happened in the last year?

Mr. DOTSON. I don't believe that you have given us more. I think it is just a product of the laws that are already there in operation, the laws and more people becoming subject to them.

Senator ABDNOR. I know this is a hard thing to answer in view of the fact that there is a record of greater and greater paperwork, but do you feel that you are making some headway in slowing down the necessity of all the paperwork that has been required in the past? Are you slowly making some headway on that?

Mr. DOTSON. I feel that we are.

Senator ABDNOR. You must have great amounts of it to do, coming in at you all the time. What plans do you have for simplifying and reducing the amount of paperwork imposed on unions and management? Are you working in that area to reduce that?

Mr. DOTSON. If you would like some detail, the Administrator of the Pension and Welfare Benefit program, Mr. Clayton, can give it to you or we can submit more for the record.

Senator ABDNOR. Well, if it is available, not in long detail, it would be great.

Mr. CLAYTON. Senator, I am sure undoubtedly, the greatest paperwork burden in LMSA is the ERISA paperwork burden. We have a paperwork task force which should be reporting within a matter of weeks which will give us the options as to what can be done administratively with the legislation.

In the meantime, we have deferred the filing date for the SPD, summary plan description, with the Federal Government for a year. The deferral regulation, which is out now, will give us additional time to complete a related regulation which we are working on which simplifies the content and the manner of distribution of the summary plan description. That regulation should be out shortly.

Also, a regulation dealing with simplifying the requirements of the summary annual report for small plans and its method of distribution should be out shortly.

We are in the anomalous position of having to issue regulations in order to deregulate and to reduce the paperwork burden. But in those two areas, summary plan description and SAR, we will have regulatory proposals or deregulatory proposals out within a couple of months. And at the same time, we will have the additional report of the paperwork task force which should suggest other things that we can do.

ERISA

Senator ABDNOR. While we are on the subject of ERISA, the General Accounting Office has found certain reports filed under ERISA are seldom used, and many of the reports that are filed are inaccurate and incomplete. They went on to say that they recommended a two-pronged program of reducing the unnecessary reports and improving accuracy of the reports that are really essential.

Are those some of the areas you are talking about that you are working on?

Mr. CLAYTON. Yes, Senator. I think the major criticism as far as the unnecessary report being filed with the Department of Labor referred to the summary plan description being filed with the Federal Government. That is one of the areas we are working on in particular as far as that recommendation goes.

We are reviewing all the paperwork requirements, including the annual report, to determine, make sure, whatever we are asking for, we really need. And if we don't need it, we will eliminate it.

PREPARED STATEMENT AND SUBMITTED QUESTIONS

Senator ABDNOR. Very good.

I have many, many other questions here, but I know they can be answered very simply in writing. So we won't ask you any more at this time, but we will, if you don't mind, be submitting probably some additional questions to you that you can provide answers in writing at the same time you return the corrected hearing transcripts.

We thank you very, very much for all your people coming up here today. Thank you.

[The statement and the questions, which were not asked at the hearing but were submitted for response for the record, follow:]