This Saturday, August 27, 2011, USPS management will begin converting the appropriate PTR's and PTF's to Full Time Status. Most, if not all of these conversions will be done improperly. Many of these employees will actually lose hours due to these conversions being done improperly. The APWU Headquarters initiated Step 4 Disputes on these improper conversions on August 17, 2011.
http://www.apwu.org/dept/ind-rel/step4/wna-disputes-110817.html
I will attempt (below) to go through what management will be doing step by step and utilize the appropriate contract language. The 2010 - 2015 New Contract Language will be highlighted in YELLOW below. APWU & USPS Question and Answer Language will be highlighted in GREEN below.
Beginning Saturday August 27, 2011 there will no longer be PTR's in the Clerk and Motor Vehicle Crafts.
Clerk Craft: There will no longer be Part-Time Regular (PTR) employees in the clerk craft.
Motor Vehicle Craft: There will no longer be Part-Time Regular (PTR) and Part-Time Flexible (PTF) employees in the motor vehicle craft. Management may create Flexible Non- Traditional Duty assignments to replace PTR and PTF duty assignments.
Beginning Saturday August 27, 2011, PTR's as stated above will not be a part of both the Clerk and Motor Vehicle Craft. Also, on the same day, PTF's in the Clerk Craft in Function 1 or Level 21 and above Post Offices will be converted to Full Time Status (below).
Memorandum of Understanding on Non-Traditional Full-Time (NTFT) Duty Assignments:
There will no longer be Part-Time Flexible (PTF) employees working in Function 1 or in post offices Level 21 and above.
Management has no intentions of following the contract language that they have agreed to. There are now two different kinds of Full Time Duty Assignments (Traditional and Non Traditional). Both of these "Duty Assignments" must be posted for bid. I have not heard of any office that has posted Non Traditional Full Time Duty Assignments, therefore, there is no such thing yet as per the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Management will not have the majority of Non Traditional Duty Assignment's posted until the end of September or later. Since new or residual NTFT Duty Assignment's must be posted for bid, management cannot just create out of thin air what they call NTFT positions to place these converted employees into. It is clearly improper!
Answer #30: NTFT duty assignments are full-time duty assignments. All of the reposting rules for full-time assignments in Article 37.3.A.4 and in Article 39.2.A including Article 39.2.A.6, 7 and 8 apply to NTFT duty assignments. The assignment must also be reposted when the total hours in the workweek of a NTFT duty assignment are changed.
Clerk Craft: Any occupied traditional full-time regular duty assignment which is converted to a non-traditional fulltime assignment shall be reposted. Any occupied non-traditional full-time regular duty assignment which is converted to a traditional full-time assignment shall be reposted.
Clerk Craft: When the total hours in the workweek of a non-traditional full-time assignment are changed, the assignment shall be reposted.
Motor Vehicle: All vacant or newly established craft duty assignments shall be posted or reverted within 28 days. When an assignment is reverted, a notice shall be posted immediately, indicating the action taken and the reason therefor. The local Union shall be given a copy of the notice.
Since Non Traditional Full Time Duty Assignments are New to every USPS Installation and there are currently only Traditional Full Time Duty Assignments, should NTFT Duty assignments be posted for bid?
Answer #32: In this situation if the duty assignment is changed sufficiently that Article 37.3.A.4 (and the LMOU) require reposting the duty assignment would be posted installation wide.
USPS Management failed to post any NTFT Duty Assignments, so, there is no such position in most if not all USPS facilities. So, these converted PTR and PTF Employees being converted, MUST be converted to a Traditional eight (8) hours a day, five (5) days a week, Full Time Position. If management fails to convert these employees as stated above, grievances must be filed for whichever of the following apply:
1) The hours not worked daily (up to 8 hours).
2) Hours worked over eight should be paid as a traditional duty assignment is paid.
3) OTDL bypass grievances may apply to the new Full Time and current OTDL employees.
4) Hours worked on their sixth (6) day should be paid at the appropriate overtime rate.
5) Hours not worked on their sixth (6th) day up to 8 hours at the appropriate overtime rate (Guaranteed Time).
6) Hours not worked for the week (up to forty (40) hours).
7) Consecutive days off in offices of over 200 man years.
8) Retreat right violations to employees who have those rights and have not been allowed to come back.
9) Grievances should be filed on weekly changes to the converted employees hours as they should be unassigned employees under Article 37 (below).
Clerk Craft Article 37.4.B: An employee who becomes an unassigned regular will continue to work the same hours and scheduled days the employee worked immediately prior to becoming unassigned unless notified of a change in work schedule before expiration of the first 28 days after the date on which the employee became unassigned. Additional work schedule changes may be made, provided that such change cannot be made effective until 180 days after the effective date of any previous change.
I hope that I covered this information clearly, so that it is correctly understood. I will put out any corrections or additions that may need to be made as soon as possible. I believe that I have covered the majority of the problems that many of you will be facing in the next few days. You can file Class Action grievances and make them ongoing to ensure that converted employees are covered until management properly post NTFT Duty Assignments later this year. Remember, employees converted to Full Time AFTER May 23, 2011 can be placed into Residual NTFT Duty Assignments from 30-48 hours.
Sam Wood www.swfloridaapwu.org
President - Southwest Florida Area Local / APWU