Vehicle Maintenance Estimated Repair Times Cannot Be Used for Discipline

In a recent national arbitration award, Arbitrator Shyam Das ruled that the Postal Service was not required to provide Article 19 notice to the union before implementing a 1998 Vehicle Maintenance Bulletin (VMB) that included Estimated Repair Times (ERTs), but sustained the Union's position that the ERTs in the VMB cannot be used to discipline employees, evaluate work performance, gauge work pace, or to require employees to document the reasons for exceeding ERTs "as a matter of course."