Dispute: Denial of Retreat Rights
This grievance protests the denial of retreat rights to excessed employees for posted Non-Traditional Full-Time (NTFT) assignments, in violation of the contract. Article 37.3.B.1 says, “Employees shall have the right to bid for vacancies within the former installation and the written request for retreat rights shall serve as a bid for vacancies in the level from which the employee was reassigned and for all residual vacancies in other levels for which the employee has expressed a desire to retreat.”
Nothing in the recently-negotiated Collective Bargaining Agreement abridges this right for excessed employees who have submitted a written notice of their desire to exercise their retreat rights, yet the Postal Service issued instructions to the field advising local managers to deny excessed employees the right to retreat to posted NTFT positions in their former installations.