Workplace issues

M-01901 – January 5, 2019 – USPS recently updated the Wound Warriors Leave policy. Eligible military veterans will be credited with 104 hours of Wounded Warriors Leave each leave year going forward.  This is a significant improvement over the previous policy which provided this benefit as a one-time occurrence only. 

M-01896 – July 27, 2018 – Due to errors with the original calculations, USPS has agreed to recalculate the TE step credit for eligible employees for applying the provisions of the MOU Re: Step Credit for Former Transitional Employees. 

M-01895 – July 27, 2018 – NALC and the Postal Service have settled national-level case Q16N-4Q-C 18204108 concerning the delay in retroactive pay adjustments for former city carrier assistants who were converted to career status during the retroactive payment period of the 2016-2019 collective bargaining agreement. The affected former CCAs will receive a lump sum payment determined by the length of time the employee worked as a CCA during the backpay period. 

M-01894 – July 27, 2018 – NALC and the Postal Service have settled national-level case Q16N-4Q-C 17638150 concerning the effective date of the City Carrier Assistant (CCA) holiday provisions of Article 11.8 of the 2016 collective bargaining agreement. Employees who remain on the rolls as either a CCA or career letter carrier who were on the rolls as a CCA on Christmas Day 2016, New Year’s Day 2017, Memorial Day 2017, and Independence Day 2017 will be paid for these holidays. 

M-01893 – July 27, 2018 – NALC and the Postal Service have settled national-level cases Q16N-4Q-C 17638188 and Q16N-4Q-C 18025517 concerning revisions to promotion pay rule for letter carriers contained in the Employee and Labor Relation Manual (ELM) Section 422.2 and the “Hold in Place” rule that was applied to Rate Schedule Code Q7 (Table 2) city letter carriers who were promoted prior to the revisions. 

M-01892 – July 27, 2018 – NALC and the Postal Service have settled national-level case Q16N-4Q-C 18034102 concerning the postal service hiring CCA above the contractual caps. This settlement provides that all city carrier assistants in all size offices with 30 months of relative standing on September 1, 2018 will be converted to career status within 60 days from the signing of the agreement on July 27, 2018. 

M-01888 – Sept. 7, 2017 – NALC and the Postal Service have settled national-level case Q11N-4Q-C 14289728 concerning the application of Article 17.2.B. Based on the clarified language contained in the 2016-2019 National Agreement, the parties agreed to close this case without prejudice to the position of either party. The parties also agreed to remand any grievance held for this case to Formal Step A of the grievance procedure for full discussion and possible resolution using the clarified language of Article 17.2.B in the 2016-2019 National Agreement and the accompanying Letter of Intent, which will be placed in next Joint Contract Administration Manual (JCAM). 

M-01879 – June 2, 2016 – NALC and USPS signed a joint letter that establishes carrier academies in all USPS districts, an alternate dispute resolution process for any issues regarding the city carrier academies, and that each USPS district will provide a list of prospective city letter carriers to the appropriate NALC national business agent(s) as early as administratively practicable. 

M-01875 – April 4, 2016 – The NALC and the Postal Service agreed to revise PS Form 8190, “USPS-NALC Joint Step A Grievance Form.” The revised form, dated March 2016, simply updates the instructions section on Page 2 in order to reflect the language from the first paragraph on page 15-4 of the July 2014 NALC-USPS Joint Contract Administration Manual (JCAM). 

M-01860 – May 20, 2015 – MOU creating a heat abatement program in the Independence, MO, installation. The terms of this agreement address the Oct. 24, 2014, final decision and order of the Occupational Health and Safety Review Commission upholding the Occupational Health and Safety Administration’s citation dated Dec, 22, 2012. 

M-01854 – Feb. 4, 2015 - The NALC and the Postal Service have settled national-level case Q11N-4Q-C 14278874 concerning the compensability of time spent and costs incurred by city carrier assistants (CCAs) when obtaining fingerprints for the background investigation required for conversion to full-time career status by agreeing that reasonable and necessary time spent by CCAs obtaining fingerprints necessary for a background investigation under the subject circumstance is compensable time. Additionally, the Postal Service is responsible for any direct costs for fingerprinting. 

M-01822 – May 22, 2013 – “City Carrier Assistants-Annual Uniform Allowance.” This Postal Service document provides details on the annual uniform allowance for CCA employees. This document sent to USPS Managers and Human Resources provides information on the procedures, instructions and a sample letter from the USPS to authorized uniform vendors.

The NALC Guide to Identifying Intentional False Editing of Clock Rings was created to assist union representatives when investigating grievances concerning clock ring edits that impact letter carriers’ pay.  The guide provides instruction on reading the TACS Employee Everything Report, examples of improperly edited clock rings, and includes a grievance starter to help build successful case files.

USPS recently updated the Wound Warriors Leave policy effective January 5, 2019. Eligible military veterans will be credited with 104 hours of Wounded Warriors Leave each leave year as long as they remain eligible under the policy guidelines. This is a significant improvement over the previous policy which provided this benefit as a one-time occurrence only. 

The Postal Service released an updated Management Instruction EL-510-2019-2 (M-01901) setting forth policy guidelines and standard procedures for administering this category of leave. This new instruction replaces Management Instruction EL-510-2016-8 (M-01881).

PS Form 5980, “Treatment Verification for ‘Wounded Warriors’ Leave”

The NALC and USPS have signed M-01796 regarding whether a vacant full-time letter carrier assignment may be reverted without current route inspection data.

In the past, management would sometimes revert a route when it became vacant without current route inspection data. This was a widespread problem several years ago and has remained an issue in some places.

The parties agree that the determination of whether an established route is full-time will be made using one of the following procedures:

• A six day mail count and inspection in accordance with the provisions of Handbook M-39 A route adjustment pursuant to Section 141 of Handbook M-39 (provided the data used is reasonably current and from the regular carrier assigned to the route)
• Evaluation through a national jointly agreed upon route evaluation process
• Evaluation through an authorized locally developed joint route evaluation process

Additionally, the settlement affirms that it in no way alters the maximization provisions of Article 7.3 of the National Agreement..

The NALC and USPS have reached agreement on two Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) regarding the issue of Delivery Unit Optimization (DUO). Generally speaking, this is where all the letter carriers in an office are moved to a different Installation and the post office where they used to work stays open with window services.

M-01744 addresses resolving the differences where two or more Local Memorandums of Understanding (LMOU) are involved as well as what happens in the event USPS changes its mind somewhere down the road and decides to move the letter carriers back to the original installation.

M-01745 addresses several issues involved when a Delivery Unit Optimization (DUO) occurs, including who goes, notice period, seniority, hold-down assignments, higher-level assignments (Article 25), and previously approved annual leave. It must be noted that these MOU's do not apply in situations where there are already clear contractual provisions that govern the movement of letter carriers and consolidation of post offices. This point is outlined in both MOUs.

NALC and the USPS have entered into another Memorandum of Understanding (M-01778) to clarify the intent of the previous DUO agreements as they pertain to the limited circumstance where letter carrier(s) have active retreat rights back to any installation involved in DUO. This new MOU (M-01778) requires such retreat rights for letter carriers to be carried forward to the gaining installation.

Letter carriers with active retreat rights to the gaining installation are not altered by this new MOU except the order of offering retreat rights may be affected. This is true because the seniority rosters of all installations involved in a DUO are merged.

Additionally, the new MOU requires that retreat rights to the original installation will be restored in the event the DUO process is reversed and letter carriers are returned to their original installation.

In November 2008, the NALC and the USPS signed a national memorandum of understanding on approved FSS work methods (M-01697). This MOU governs how letter carriers serving park-and-loop or foot deliveries in FSS offices handle additional bundles of mail. The MOU states:

• City letter carriers serving park-and-loop or foot deliveries will not be required to carry more than three bundles.
• In order to maintain three bundles on pre-sequenced mail days, letter carriers serving park-and-loop or foot deliveries may only be assigned to either:
• case residual mail, then collate with FSS mail while in the office (the pre-sequenced bundle must meet the definition of a third bundle under the Interpretive Step agreement for case Q98N-4Q-C 00189552) or,
• case residual mail, then collate with the pre-sequenced addressed mail during pull down while in the office.
• There is no change to current work methods for other types of deliveries.
• When a simplified mailing is carried as a third bundle by city letter carriers serving park-and-loop or foot deliveries, the simplified mailing will be placed on the bottom of the appropriate bundle. In order to maintain three bundles in this circumstance, residual mail and any pre-sequenced mail delivered that day will be collated with the FSS mail.
• City carrier case configurations will be consistent with requirements in methods handbooksM-39 and M-41. City carriers working in an FSS environment will be consulted before case configuration changes are implemented.

The MOU came as a result of reviewing the final report of the joint FSS task force (M-01691). The report also memorializes each party's FSS perspectives and recommendations, as well as the conclusion of what has been jointly agreed to regarding the FSS environment.

In September 2007, the NALC and the USPS signed a national memorandum of understanding on the implementation of FSS (M-01643). This MOU established two things.

1. Once FSS is fully implemented in a delivery unit, management will determine the methods to estimate impact in a delivery unit and make route adjustments accordingly.
2. Sixty days after implementing route adjustments for FSS, the local parties will review the adjustments to ensure that routes are as near 8 hours as possible. This 60-day period will not count toward the special route inspection process (Section 271, Handbook M-39; Section 918,Handbook M-41). If either party determines that the route(s) is (are) not properly adjusted, then the route(s) will be adjusted In accordance with the provisions of Handbook M-39 or, if applicable, a locally agreed upon adjustment formula.

The terms of this memorandum were effective immediately and continue through all phases of Flats Sequencing System (FSS) implementation.

For a detailed explanation on your rights in and the procedures of adjusting routes in accordance with the provisions of Handbook M-39, see the NALC's Route Protection Program.