Harvard has asked the secretary of Labor to postpone for a year the effective date of some of the provisions of a 1974 pension act. Personnel Office spokesmen said yesterday.

The provisions, signed into law last fall, went into effect last month. The government automatically granted Harvard a postponement to June 30. Joan Bruce, manager of benefits administration, said.

But Harvard needs more time to imterpret the "complex" provisions of the act and is trying to get a further extension until next January, John B. Butler, director of Personnel, said.

Butler said the delay will not affect Harvard employees.

The act--which requires named fiduciaries to be personally liable for the funding of employee benefit programs--is designed to protect workers' pensions and other benefits in the event of a firm's bankruptcy.

Butler said the "main thrust" of the legislation is directed at "segments of industry," and that Harvard's workers are already protected against the things the act guards against.

Contradictions Puzzling

However, Bruce said the act contains "contradictions," and that University lawyers are trying to determine "how specifically the provisions of the plan must be compiled with."

"You've get I don't know how many employers all over the country asking questions" about the act, she said.

Some provisions of the act that take effect most year will have a more direct effect as the beneficiaries of pension plans than do the act's present provisions, Bruce said.

Next year's provisions will permit employees older than 55 to name as heir who will receive the employee's pension benefits if he dies before retiring