Labor Arbitrator Nicholas Zumas Dies

Nicholas H. Zumas, 76, a lawyer and labor arbitrator, died of lung cancer on Dec. 22, 2007, at his home in Washington, D.C.

In addition to settling disputes for professional football and baseball, Zumas served as a postal arbitrator for many years.

One of his most memorable postal decisions involved casuals. In a 1999 regional-level arbitration, he ruled that the employment of casuals was restricted only by the national limit of 5.9 percent, and that the prohibition on employing casuals "in lieu of" career postal employees did not establish a separate limit. Although regional arbitration awards are not precedent-setting, the Postal Service relied on this conclusion in the ensuing years to justify the use of casuals as an essentially permanent component of the workforce. 

In 2001, the decision was reversed by a national-level arbitrator, Shyam Das, who ruled that the Postal Service could only employ casuals as a limited-term, supplemental workforce, and that casuals could not be employed in lieu of career workers. Das' ruling, which was precedent-setting, paved the way for many locals to win hundreds of millions of dollars in grievance awards.

"Das' ruling, combined with the multi-million dollar victories in the grievance procedure, provided the leverage the union needed to negotiate the end of part-time flexible employment in large offices," APWU President William Burrus observed. "The conversion this year of approximately 10,000 part-time flexibles to full time would not have been possible if the original Zumas decision had been upheld," he said.