Built-in function %char

Is there a way to keep %char from removing leading zeros?
 I'm using %char to get the character representation of a 6.0 yymmdd date
field, and the 2.0 century field.
Example: Date of employment century emdoec = 20, yymmdd emdoe= 020921

eval          wrk08a = %char(emdobc) + %char(emdob)
after the eval statement wrk08a = 2020921

If I use move opcodes it's fine.

Thank You,
Bob Schwartz
Systems Analyst
Information Systems
Southeast Georgia Health System, Brunswick Campus
Voice   912.466.3303
Fax      912.466.3313
email    bschwar@xxxxxxxx