European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 11, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Friday october 11, 1991 the stars and stripes a Page 17today s tip by the Washington Post Washington engineers scientists medical personnel and clerical employees who Are paid special above scale rates Are almost certain to get the same 4.2 percent raise in january As regular White Collar civil servants. Nationwide there Are 180,000 special raters. They Are paid from 3 percent to 30 percent More than other workers in the same grades. They get the differentials because they Are in hard to fill jobs. About 50,000 of this areas 366,000 Federal workers Are special raters. Most of them Are clerical employees in grades 2 through 7. The 4.2 percent january Federal pay raise will be the first under a new system. That system is designed to gradually close the pay Gap with Industry through a series of general raises and starting in a few years additional local pay increases. The 1992 Federal raise is based on the employment Cost Index which measures private sector pay changes rather than the consumer Price Index which measures the Cost of living. That is Why Federal workers next year will get a bigger raise than retirees. With one month left to go in the inflation tracking Chi countdown Federal and military retirees and persons getting social Security Are due a minimum 3.5 percent january  rates London up thursdays rates for the . Dollar to other currencies. Figures Are expressed in dollars to the British Pound other local currencies in dollars Gold was quoted at $359.55 an ounce Silver at $4.12. Oct. 9 oct. 10 British Pound.1.7155 1.7180 German mark.1.6910 1.6900 French franc.5.8010 5.7560 dutch guilder.1.9238 1.9015 belgian franc.35.0700 34.8400 italian lira.1.272.80 .1,263 00 Swiss franc.1.4880 1.4788 greek drachma .189.78 188.01 turkish lira.4,814.20 4,803.70 saudi arabian riyal.3.7502 3.7500 Spanish peseta.107.72 106.66 portuguese escudo.146.93 145.25 Canadian dollar.11221 austrian schilling.12.0150 11 �770 norwegian krone.6-6z29 �2922 danish krone.6.5800 6.5075 these Are commercial rates and can be related Only to the use of foreign currency by . Forces for official business. The Only official rate concerns the Sale of British pounds to . Personnel for personal use. Through Friday this will be $1.77 for a Pound based on a Price fixing thursday afternoon at military banking facilities. Gerber joins up with polish firm Warsaw Poland a Gerber products co., making inroads into Eastern european markets has signed a $25 million Deal to acquire a majority stake in the state owned Alima baby food company. Under the contract Michigan based Gerber will receive 60 percent of Alima shares and invest More than $14 million in the company Over the next five years. According to Poland a privatization policies the remaining 40 percent of shares will be sold to 1,000 Ajima employees and some 4,500 suppliers of farm produce a network Alima developed to match baby food standards. If predicts modest growth in economies of West East Bangkok Thailand a after posting the slowest annual growth in nearly a decade the world Economy will rebound modestly next year As the United states recovers from recession the International monetary fund predicted. In its annual world Outlook the if said wednesday that Eastern Europe will turn the Comer in 1992 and experience economic growth after a Tough initial stage of transformation from communism to a free Market system. There is nothing but uncertainty however for the crumbling soviet Economy the report said. A there is no indication yet of circumstances that would reverse the decline in soviet output Michael Mussa director of the i mfg a department of research said at a briefing before the report was released. The if provides Loans and advice to help developing countries Cope with economic problems. Its Outlook was issued As the worlds top Bankers and economists gathered for the i mfg a annual meeting in Bangkok. The if projected that world inflation would ease from 5 percent Over the last year to 3.8 percent in 1992, largely because Oil prices have fallen since the persian Gulf War. A the world Economy appears to be poised for a relatively moderate rebound to 1992, with output rising by 2.75 percent and world Trade growing by 5 percent a the report said. Recovery from recession in the United states Canada and Britain the drop in Oil prices and the end of the Kuwait crisis All will contribute to improvement in 1992, the report said. World growth is expected to be Only 1 percent this year the lowest rate in nine years. Boeing imposes hiring freeze Early Seattle a Boeing co. Said wednesday that it is freezing its hiring a month earlier than usual this Vear because of defense program cutbacks. Boeing normally halts hiring near the end of each year and had planned to Start this years freeze nov. 1, said Larry Mckean vice president for human resources. Instead Boeing decided to Stop hiring oct. 2 and to keep the freeze in place indefinitely. Mckean said the freeze would affect Only about 100 new hires this year. He said he did no to know whether Boeing had Ever before expanded the hiring freeze which is normally lifted at the Start of a new year. Boeing said last week that military spending cuts by the Bush administration will Force the reassignment or Layoff of 2,500 employees in its defense amp space group 1,500 More than previously anticipated. Mckean said Boeing moved up the freeze so its employment stabilization Board can try to reassign More of those employees within the company. The Board made up of senior executives was formed in March to try to avoid laying off employees who could be absorbed into the company a other divisions. Boeing employs 158,700 people worldwide including 44,000 workers in its defense amp space group. The government said last week that it was halting Boeing a contract to develop a new Short Range attack missile spam ii to be carried by by and b-2 bombers. Etc companies Settle charges Over hiring policies Washington a Mcdonnell Douglas Macy a and two other companies settled charges that they did no to Tell unsuccessful Job applicants that credit information had figured into their rejections Federal regulators said. The Federal Trade commission said wednesday that the agreements were reached with St. Louis based aerospace giant Mcdonnell Douglas corp. . Macy amp co. Of new York Keystone Carbon co., a Metal parts and bearings manufacturer based in St. Marys a. And the Kobacker co., a Columbus Ohio company that owns 750 retail shoe stores in 25 states. None of the companies admitted any wrongdoing but they agreed to comply with the fair credit reporting acts disclosure requirements in dealing with future applicants. They also must Send letters to the rejected applicants listing the name and address of the credit Bureau that supplied data to the companies. The unemployment blues Menko d. Christoph 47, finds that Hunting for work can be a huge pile of rejections in his St. Peters mo., Home. Christoph Foll time Job. The jobless White Collar worker surrounded by joined millions of unemployed americans hit hard by the races want ads and Home computer equipment is sifting through a Sion when he was Laid off by Mcdonnell Douglas in St. Louis