APWU, USPS Reach Agreement On Filling Residual Vacancies

An important March 20 agreement between the APWU and USPS outlines a procedure for filling residual vacancies in the Clerk, Maintenance and Motor Vehicle Crafts, and will result in the conversion of Postal Support Employees to career status and the conversion of Part-Time Flexible Clerks to full-time, APWU President Mark Dimondstein has announced.

“Establishing a fair procedure for converting Clerk Craft PSEs to career is a major accomplishment,” he said. “In addition, the settlement protects the contractual rights of career employees, ensuring that workers who were excessed are given the right to retreat into residual assignments, where they are eligible. It also will give mobility to unassigned full-time employees and to part-time flexibles who are converted,” he said.

The precise number of conversions that will take place as a result of the agreement is not yet known because it depends on the number of residual vacancies and other factors, Dimondstein said.

The agreement stipulates, however, that residual assignments that were related to the Area Mail Processing (consolidation) excessing and have been released from withholding will be considered “viable” and will be filled without being subject to additional review.

The agreement, as it relates to the Clerk Craft, will remain in effect until Oct. 31, 2014, and may be extended by mutual agreement. It establishes the “pecking order” below for filling residual assignments in the Clerk Craft. Procedures for implementation also are enumerated.

1. Unencumbered clerks in the same installation;
2. Employees with Clerk Craft retreat rights;
3. Full-Time Regular Clerks from an installation impacted by excessing who request transfers within the district or a 100-mile radius through eReassign 21-Day Posting;
4. Conversion of Part-Time Flexible Clerks in the installation;
5. Full-Time Regular Clerks impacted by excessing who request voluntary transfers beyond the district or a 100-mile radius through regular eReassign;
6. One-time posting of remaining residual assignments to PTF Clerks in other installations in the district who are on the rolls as of March 20;
7. Priority consideration transfers through eReassign from other APWU crafts and regular transfers through eReassign from all crafts, and
8. Conversion of Clerk Craft PSEs to career status within the installation.

In the Maintenance Craft, duty assignments will be filled in accordance with Article 38.3, 38.4, 38.5 and the Order for Filling Vacant Maintenance Positions in the Joint Contract Interpretation Manual (p. 280). After applying Item 7.a (Maintenance transfers), custodial duty assignments will be filled by offering conversion to PSE custodians. The APWU and USPS will address procedures concerning PSE conversion in the Maintenance Craft in a separate memorandum.

In the Motor Vehicle Craft, residual duty assignments will be filled by applying Articles 39.1.B.6, 39.1.B.7 and 39.2.A.11. Residual vacancies will be filled in accordance with these articles by converting PSEs working in the same position as the residual vacancies (i.e., Mechanic, Technician, Tractor-Trailer Operator or Motor Vehicle Operator) in the same installation.

The agreement was negotiated by Dimondstein and the USPS vice president of Labor Relations.

“Hammering out this important agreement was an arduous process, and it required a collective effort by many APWU officers, including Director of Industrial Relations Tony McKinnon Sr., Clerk Craft Director Clint Burelson and Assistant Directors Lamont Brooks and Lynn Pallas-Barber, Maintenance Craft Director Steve Raymer, Motor Vehicle Craft Director Michael Foster and other national officers,” Dimondstein said. “I commend them for their assistance, insight and cooperative spirit.

“I encourage locals to immediately review the records of all residual and withheld vacancies and ensure that local management adheres to the agreement,” he said. For more information, visit www.apwu.org.