Clerk Craft Challenges Plan To Transfer Time & Attendance Work

The APWU is challenging a Postal Service decision to transfer duties of Time and Attendance Control System (TACS) clerks to another bargaining unit.

The USPS notified the APWU of the plan to transfer the work currently being performed at District and plants to a Help Desk function located at the Eagan Information Technology/Accounting Service Center facility in Eagan, MN in October 2013.

The Postal Service asserts that the change will result in savings of $16 million per year, but cannot explain how or where this savings will be achieved, Clerk Craft officers said.

APWU representatives met with their USPS counterparts to discuss the proposal on Sept. 11, 2012, and advised management that the union fully expects the Postal Service to honor contractual protections for this Clerk Craft work. Union officers pointed out that Article 1.3 of the 2010-2015 Collective Bargaining Agreement now permits employees to “follow their work” to the Eagan IT/ASC. Under previous contracts, the Eagan center was excluded from this process.

In a letter dated Oct. 3, 2012, the USPS assured the APWU that work currently performed by TACS clerks that is not transferred to the Eagan Help Desk “will remain bargaining unit work,” but did not respond to the union’s contention that clerks may follow the work.

The APWU has demanded that discussions continue and remains determined to protect the interests of all clerks. Updates will follow when they are available.