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Landmark
Agreement Settles Disputes on 'Loaner Clerks'
The
LOSS of MAIL VOLUME, THE EFFECTS OFF AUTOMATION AND EXCESSING
have been serious threats
to work hours for part-time flexible clerks across the entire
country. The loss of work hours for our members has been worse
in some areas than in others.
We have been diligently seeking a away to provide additional
work opportunities for part-time flexible clerks. We are also
looking at innovative ways to create full-time duty assignments.
In an effort to create more work opportunities for our PTF members,
the
Clerk Division recently settled an important case
(Q90C-4Q-C 93034651) regarding
the utilization of PTF clerks in installation other than
their employing office.
The case arose in Albany, NY, where the Albany District has
a practice of hiring PTF clerks and requiring as a condition
of employment, that they work installations other than their
employing office. This created havoc inasmuch as these "hub
clerks" as they were called, had multiple offices designated
as their "Employ Office" and the USPS took the position they
did not have to pay them travel expenses since there were hired
with that understanding.
This landmark agreement puts the issue to rest once and for
all. The decision states that PTF clerks may have only one "employ
office" and that it must be shown on their PS Form 50.
The agreement goes on to state that when PTF clerks are assigned
work in offices outside their "employ office' it must be done
consistent wit the applicable provisions of the National Agreement.
This means they are entitled to mileage and/or travel time as
each particular circumstance warrants. We are currently nearing
completion on a set of questions and answers to address all
the related issues that arise from the use of "hub clerk" or
"loaner clerks" as they are sometimes called.
We believe that anytime you can create more work opportunities
for the membership it is the right thing to do.
Other duties as assigned
In another landmark case (Q90C-4Q-C 93034647), the union
grieved the inclusion of the term "other duties as assigned"
on duty assignments when it was not in the Standard Position
Description.
| When PTF clerks are assigned work in
offices outside their 'employ office,' they are entitled
to mileage and/or travel time as each particular circumstance
warrants. |
There had been abuse by some
supervisors who viewed this phrase as giving then the ability
to assign any work they chose to clerks. Some areas were adding
duties which required specific skills that were not a part of
the duty assignment held by the clerk.
The union took the position that when work is assigned to clerks
fort duties not in their description it must be done in accordance
with Article 7, Section 2,
and other applicable provisions of the Collective
Bargaining Agreement. This includes "day to day seniority, which
was recently negotiated for Mail Processing Clerks.
This settlement is also important because it supports the requirement
of a meaningful bidding procedure. The decision states, in part:
The purpose of the (bid) notice is to provide relevant information
to employees who are interested in bidding for jobs in order
that they make an informed decision when deciding to bid for
jobs."
Clearly, clerks are entitled to more information than just the
location, hours and off days when deciding whether to bid on
jobs. The principal assignment area and the duties of the job
are critical information that must be supplied to prospective
bidders. This part of the relevant information that must be
posted ob bid notices.
Locals are asked to diligently enforce the bid postings to ensure
integrity in the process. Our members deserve no less.
source: The
American Postal Worker July/August 2003 pgs. 14-15
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Mail
Processing Clerk, PS-05
MOU Mail Processing
Clerk PS-05
Q&A
SENIOR MAIL PROCESSOR 06/05/2002
Senior Mail Processor
Questions & Answers
The following questions and answers relate to the May 9, 2002 Memorandum
of Understanding (MOU) Re: Senior Mail Processors (SMP) PS-6 in
Non-Maintenance Capable Offices.
1.Do the numbers attached
to the Memorandum of Understanding on Senior Mail Processor reflect
the maximum number of SMPs per site?
No. The numbers reflect the minimum number
of SMPs per site. Any additional SMP duty assignments created pursuant
to Part 233 of the ELM will vary depending on the facts in each
installation.
2.May a SMP be assigned
both scheme distribution and window duties?
A SMP may be assigned either scheme distribution
duties or window duties, but not both.
3.What type of mixed
duty assignments are permitted under the MOU?
Some examples are: SMP with either window
duties or scheme distribution duties (but not both); Sales, Service
and Distribution Associate with SMP duties added (only in those
instances where the distribution is non-scheme); Mail Processing
Clerk with SMP duties added.
_________________________________________________________
Doug A. Tulino
William Burrus
Manager
President
Labor Relations Policies and Programs
American Postal Workers Union, AFL-CIO
Date: June 5, 2002
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MOU / Q&A
MAIL PROCESSING CLERK POSITION APWU 05/09/2002,
06/05/2002
Mail Processing Clerk
Questions & Answers
The following clarification is provided to Questions 3 and 4 of
the May 9, 2002 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) regarding the
Mail Processing Clerk position.
Does this give employees
day-to-day seniority rights?
Yes, when moving Mail Processing Clerk employee(s)
with the same skills out of their principal assignment area, they
will be moved by juniority. Applying seniority in this manner is
limited strictly to the provisions of the May 9, 2002 Memorandum
of Understanding.
What does day-to-day
seniority mean for this application?
It means that when the employer determines
a need to assign a Mail Processing Clerk employee or a number of
Mail Processing Clerk employees from their principal assignment
area in accordance with the May 9, 2002 MOU, the Mail Processing
Clerk employees with the same skills are moved by juniority (with
the noted exception in Question 1 of the May 9, 2002 questions).
As an example, there are two Mail Processing Clerk employees with
the same skills in their duty assignment and the same principal
assignment area; management determines it needs one of these Mail
Processing Clerk employees to work outside the principal assignment
area. When moving the Mail Processing Clerk employee, management
will take the junior Mail Processing Clerk employee with the skills.
Again, applying seniority in this manner is limited to the terms
of the May 9, 2002 MOU.
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MEMORANDUM
OF UNDERSTANDING BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE
AND THE AMERICAN POSTAL WORKERS UNION, AFL-CIO
RE: Mail Processing
Clerk Position
The Postal Service notified the American Postal Workers Union (APWU)
by letter dated March 1, 2002, of its' decision to implement a new
position of Mail Processing Clerk pursuant to Article 1, Section
5 of the USPS/APWU Collective Bargaining Agreement. The Postal Service
additionally notified the APWU by letter dated April 30, 2002, that
the Mail Processing Clerk position would become effective May 4,
2002.
The parties agree that the Mail Processor position duties and responsibilities
will be combined with Level 5 Mail Processing and Distribution positions'
duties to establish one position description entitled Mail Processing
Clerk, PS-5. The Mail Processing Clerk, PS-5 position will replace
the following job descriptions:
Mail Processor, PS-5
Distribution Clerk, PS-5
Optical Character Reader Operator, PS-5
Implementation Procedures
All current employees in the position descriptions listed above
will be automatically placed in the newly established Mail Processing
Clerk position.
Mail Processing Clerk, Level 5, notice of duty assignments, when
posted, will continue to contain information required in Article
37.3.E., which includes in #5:
"The principal assignment area (parcel post, incoming or outgoing
in the main office, or specified station, branch, or other location(s)
where the greater portion of the assignment will be performed)."
The employees' current duty assignments will continue unless changed
by management in accordance with the appropriate provisions of the
Collective Bargaining Agreement. It is understood that employees
in the Mail Processing Clerk, Level 5 position may be assigned in
mail processing operations in accordance with the employees' training
and qualifications, and in accordance with the Collective Bargaining
Agreement.
This understanding is made for the purposes described above and
is not intended to alter any of the provisions of the Collective
Bargaining Agreement. This agreement is made without prejudice or
precedent to either party's position with respect to position descriptions
or any other provision of the National Agreement.
Peter A. Sgro
James J. McCarthy
Manager
Director, Clerk Division
Contract Administration
American Postal Workers
U.S. Postal Service Union, AFL-CIO
Date: May 9, 2002
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MEMORANDUM
OF UNDERSTANDING BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE AND THE
AMERICAN POSTAL WORKERS UNION, AFL-CIO
RE: Mail Processing Clerk Position
The following are questions and answers regarding the Mail Processing
Clerk Position Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed on May 9,
2002. This document was developed jointly by the American Postal
Workers Union (APWU) and U.S. Postal Service (USPS) and reflects
common understandings of the interpretation and application of the
provisions of the Mail Processing Clerk Position MOU.
1.Does this allow management to assign employees to other mail processing
areas?
Yes. Management may assign employees in accordance with operational
needs and the employee's qualifications. However, if there is more
than one employee working in a principal assignment area with the
necessary skills, management may move employees out of the principal
assignment area as needed by juniority.
NOTE: The only exception to this rule is if an employee with a scheme
in his/her duty assignment has not reached the current minimum 30
hour sortation requirement in an AP. In that instance, a more senior
employee may be moved out of the principal assignment area.
2.What does the term principal assignment area mean?
Principal assignment area is defined in Article 37 as follows:
"The principal assignment area (parcel post, incoming or outgoing
in the main office, or specified station, branch, or other location(s)
where the greater portion of the assignment will be performed)."
(Article 37.3.E.5)
3.Does this give employees day-to-day seniority rights?
Yes, when moving employee(s) with the same skills out of their principal
assignment area.
4.What does day-to-day seniority mean for this application?
It means that when the employer determines a need to assign an employee
or a number of employees outside of their principal assignment area,
the employees are moved by juniority (with the noted exception in
number 1). As an example, there are two employees with the same
skills in their duty assignment and same principal assignment area
and management determines it needs one to work outside the principal
assignment area. When moving the employee, management will take
the junior employee with the necessary skills.
5.With the Mail Processing Clerk, PS-05, position, how will the
employee know which duties he/she has for a duty assignment?
When posting the bid notice, management will post the duties of
the assignment and the principal assignment area.
6.Is their a requirement that the principal assignment area be posted
on duty assignments?
Yes. Article 37 requires this information on all postings. Local
practice in defining a principal assignment area will continue.
If no principal assignment area has been established for a duty
assignment(s), management will determine the principal assignment
areas for those duty assignments in accordance with the definition
in Article 37, provide them to the local union and inform the employees.
7.Can a duty assignment have more than one principal assignment
area?
No.
8.Can all posted duty assignments in an installation be posted identically
with the same principal assignment area?
Not usually. Normally, in an installation, there would be more than
one principal assignment area.
9.Can a duty assignment be posted with Mail Processing (Automation)
and Manual Distribution (scheme or non-scheme) duties and responsibilities?
Yes.
10.Can you add a scheme as part of the duties of a current duty
assignment?
Yes. Schemes may be added to duty assignments and implemented in
accordance with the Collective Bargaining Agreement.
11.Can a Mail Processing Clerk duty assignment be posted with Sales
and Service Associate duties and responsibilities?
No. However, the Mail Processing Clerk may perform any of the following
duties: provide service at public window for non-financial transactions;
maintain records of mails; examine balances in advance deposit accounts;
and record and bill mail requiring special service.
12.What will be the qualifications for the new position description?
There will be a qualification standard developed for the Mail Processing
Clerk, PS-05 position description. All employees currently on the
rolls in duty assignments created from the existing position descriptions
will be deemed minimally qualified for the new position description.
13.What about training for the duty assignments?
Training will be provided as necessary on any of the duties that
are incorporated into a duty assignment when it is posted. For example,
if the principal assignment area is automation and the duty assignment
includes manual scheme distribution, the employee will be trained
on the scheme and the automation duties.
14.Will all employees currently in one of the mail processing job
descriptions listed in the MOU be considered Mail Processing Clerks?
Yes, all employees in those listed job descriptions will be placed
in the Mail Processing Clerk, PS-05 position description.
15.Will this change make any established positions obsolete?
Yes. The Mail Processor, PS-05; OCR Operator, PS-05; and Distribution
Clerk, PS-05 will be eliminated for use in future postings. However,
the Distribution Clerk, PS-05, KP12 will continue to be utilized
for ranking purposes.
16.Will the change in position title change the principal assignment
area of any of the current duty assignments?
No. For purposes of placing all employees in the newly created position
description, the individual duty assignments will carry their current
principal assignment area and duties with them.
If the former duty assignment was Mail Processor and the principal
assignment area was automation, the new duty assignment will be
Mail Processing Clerk, Level 5, with automation as the principal
assignment area. If the former duty assignment was Distribution
Clerk, 030, the new duty assignment will be Mail Processing Clerk,
PS-05, with distribution, 030 as the principal assignment area.
This change is not intended to change Local Memorandum of Understanding
(LMOU) or previously existing principal assignment areas.
In the future, management may post or re-post duty assignments,
consistent with the National Agreement and applicable LMOUs.
17.Does this change alter or amend the Local Memorandum of Understanding
(LMOU)?
No. This change also cannot be used by management to challenge previously
existing LMOU language as "in conflict and inconsistent" with the
National Agreement pursuant to the Goldberg award.
Peter A. Sgro
James P. McCarthy
Manager
Director, Clerk Division
Contract Administration
American Postal Workers
U.S. Postal Service Union, AFL-CIO
Date: May 9, 2002
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MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING BETWEEN THE
UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE AND AMERICAN POSTAL WORKERS UNION,
AFL-CIO
MOU
RE: Senior Mail Processors (SMP) PS-6 in Non-Maintenance Capable
Offices
1)The determination of whether an office is "non-maintenance capable"
for the purposes of this Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) shall
be governed by the provisions of the attached February 2, 1994,
grievance settlement in Case Nos. H0C-NA-C 19008 and H0C-NA-C 19010.
2)The senior bidder for all SMP positions and mixed duty assignments
which include SMP duties, will enter a deferment period and be provided
appropriate combinations of training, testing, and practical demonstration
of ability to perform in the actual position. Permanent assignment
to the duty assignment will be deferred until successful completion
of the above mentioned requirements. If the employee does not satisfactorily
complete these requirements or withdraws, the employee will be returned
to his/her former duty assignment and the next senior bidder will
be placed into training.
3)SMP duty assignments (full-time and part-time regular) may be
established as mixed duty assignments and include Mail Processing
Clerk; Window Clerk; Distribution and Window Clerk; Sales, Service
and Distribution Associate; and Sales & Service Associate duties.
4)For purposes of this agreement, management will staff non-maintenance
capable offices with a number of SMPs (either full-time regular,
part-time regular, or part-time flexible) based on the attached
criteria of active equipment.
5)This MOU will replace the April 6, 1995, MOU and is non-citable
and non-precedential concerning issues involving Clerk Craft "mixed"
duty assignments and is made without prejudice to the position of
either party concerning "mixed duty assignments" issues in general.
_______________________________________________
Peter A. Sgro
James P. McCarthy
Manager
Director, Clerk Division
Contract Administration
American Postal Workers Union, AFL-CIO
Date: May 5, 2002
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ARTICLE 7
EMPLOYEE CLASSIFICATIONS
Section 1. Definition
and Use
A. Regular Work Force.
The regular work force shall be comprised of two categories of
employees which are as follows:
1. Full-Time.
Employees in this category shall be hired pursuant
to such procedures as the Employer may establish and shall be
assigned to regular schedules consisting of five (5) eight (8)
hour days in a service week.
2. Part-Time.
Employees in this category shall be hired pursuant to such procedures
as the Employer may establish and shall be assigned to regular
schedules of less than forty (40) hours in a service week, or
shall be available to work flexible hours as assigned by the
Employer during the course of a service week.
B. Supplemental Work
Force.
1. The supplemental work force
shall be comprised of casual employees. Casual employees are
those who may be utilized as a limited term supplemental work
force, but may not be employed in lieu of full or part-time
employees.
2. During the course of a service
week, the Employer will make every effort to insure that qualified
and available part-time flexible employees are utilized at the
straight-time rate prior to assigning such work to casuals.
3. Starting in the fiscal
year commencing September 16, 1995, the number of casuals who
may be employed in any accounting period, other than accounting
periods 3 and 4, shall not exceed 6.6% of the total number of
career employees covered by this Agreement and shall not exceed
on average 5.6% of the total number of career employees covered
by this Agreement during a fiscal year, exclusive of accounting
periods 3 and 4.
4. Casuals are limited to two
(2) ninety (90) day terms of casual employment in a calendar
year. In addition to such employment, casuals may be reemployed
during the Christmas period for not more than twenty-one (21)
days.
C. Transitional Work
Force
1. The transitional work force
shall be comprised of noncareer, bargaining unit employees utilized
to fill vacated assignments as follows:
a. Transitional employees may
be used to cover duty assignments which are due to be eliminated
by automation and residual vacancies withheld pursuant to
Article 12.
b. Transitional employees may
be used to replace part-time attrition. Over the course of
a pay period, the Employer will make a reasonable effort to
ensure that qualified and available part-time flexible employees
are utilized at the straight-time rate prior to assigning
such work to transitional employees working in the same work
location and on the same tour.
2. Transitional employees shall
be hired pursuant to such procedures as the Employer may establish.
They will be hired for a term not to exceed 360
calendar days for each appointment. Such employees have no daily
or weekly work hour guarantee, except as provided for
in Article 8.8.D. Transitional employees will have
a break in service of at least 5 days between
appointments.
3. The use of transitional employees
will be phased out as the deployed automated equipment becomes
operationally proficient.
Section 2. Employment
and Work Assignments
A. Normally, work in different
crafts, occupational groups or levels will not be combined into
one job. However, to provide maximum full-time employment and
provide necessary flexibility, management may establish full-time
schedule assignments by including work within different crafts
or occupational groups after the following sequential actions
have been taken:
1. All available work within
each separate craft by tour has been combined.
2. Work of different crafts in
the same wage level by tour has been combined.
The appropriate representatives
of the affected Unions will be informed in advance of the reasons
for establishing the combination full-time assignments within
different crafts in accordance with this Article.
B. In the event of insufficient
work on any particular day or days in a full-time or part-time
employee's own scheduled assignment, management may assign the
employee to any available work in the same wage level for which
the employee is qualified, consistent with the employee's knowledge
and experience, in order to maintain the number of work hours
of the employee's basic work schedule.
C. During exceptionally heavy workload
periods for one occupational group, employees in an occupational
group experiencing a light workload period may be assigned to
work in the same wage level, commensurate with their capabilities,
to the heavy workload area for such time as management determines
necessary.
[see Memo, page 313
]
Section 3. Employee
Complements
A. The Employer shall staff all
postal installations which have 200 or more man years of employment
in the regular work force as of the date of this Agreement as
follows:
1. With respect to the combined
bargaining units represented by the APWU, as set forth in Article
1--80% full-time employees.
B. The Employer shall maximize
the number of full-time employees and minimize the number of part-time
employees who have no fixed work schedules in all postal installations;
however, nothing in this paragraph B shall detract from the USPS'
ability to use the awarded full-time/part-time ratio as provided
for in paragraph 3.A. above.
C. A part-time flexible employee
working eight (8) hours within ten (10), on the same five (5)
days each week and the same assignment over a six month period
will demonstrate the need for converting the assignment to a full-time
position.
[see Memos, pages
312, 313, 314]
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