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Other Clerk Topics
Air Mail Centers & Facilities
In a notice dated Nov. 10, 2004, [PDF] the USPS advised the APWU that in conjunction with a nationwide review of Air Mail Facilities and Air Mail Centers, operations at AMFs, AMCs, and Airfield Transfer Offices will be standardized. [read more]
Bargaining Unit Work in Small Offices
A Jan. 5, 2005, ruling by Arbitrator Shyam Das addressed the conditions under which supervisors, postmasters, and other management personnel can perform craft duties in small offices. Protecting the work of APWU members in these offices is a priority for the union, and has consequences for job security, as well as the conversion of part-time flexibles to regular. Click here to view the arbitration award as well as a synopsis of the union’s position and forms to be used by stewards and officers pursuing this matter. [PDF-7MB]
Bidding for Light/Limited Duty Clerks
A Sept. 1, 1987, Memorandum of Understanding [PDF] between the USPS and the APWU sets forth the proper procedures to utilize when temporarily ill or injured employees bid on assignments but are not capable of immediately entering the new duty assignment.
Contract Technician Changes
A July 20, 2004, letter [PDF] from the USPS updates the APWU about plans to consolidate Facility Service Centers and the impact the changes will have on contact technician duty assignments.
eBuy
The USPS notified the APWU on July 10, 2001 [PDF], of its intent to implement a web-based purchasing system via the Postal Intranet. The decision reduced the number of bargaining unit work hours dedicated to procurement, such as ordering, invoice certification, and payment processing, in each office.
Entrance Exams
In January 2005, the Postal Service began implementing a new entrance exam, known as the ON Battery 473. The new test will replace the ON 470 exam.
The ON 473 will apply to the following positions:
Hub Clerk
The Hub Clerk program will make additional work hour opportunities available to many Part-Time Flexible (PTF) employees whose hours have been reduced due to low mail volume.
A settlement agreement [PDF] between the APWU and USPS dated Feb. 19, 2003, recognizes that PTFs may only have one “employ office” on their Form 50, but they may be utilized outside that office.
A series of Questions and Answers [PDF], negotiated by the parties on Sept. 24, 2003, outlines the rights of PTFs who are loaned to other offices, as well as the rights of other employees in the gaining and losing offices.
Employees may be eligible for pay for travel time and mileage even when the assignment is within a 50-mile radius of the home office. Arbitration awards, Step 4 agreements, and excerpts from USPS handbooks [PDF] support this position.
MERLIN
(Mail Evaluation, Readability, Lookup Instrument)
MERLIN – the Mail Evaluation, Readability, Lookup Instrument – automates the mail verification process for business mailings in the Bulk Mail Unit.
In a Jan. 2, 2001, letter [PDF] the Postal Service notified the APWU of its intent to deploy MERLIN beginning in May 2001. Attached are four pages of Safety Precautions and the initial Deployment Schedule.
Module 1 of a USPS training document [PDF] provides operator information, including background, MERLIN’s role in the Business Mail Entry Unit/Detached Mail Unit (BMEU/DMU), machine operation, report generation, and analysis and function.
“Other Duties as Assigned”
A pre-arbitration settlement [PDF] between the APWU and USPS stipulates that the phrase “other duties as assigned” on a vacant duty assignment notice cannot be used in conflict with the Collective Bargaining Agreement or other agreements between the union and management.
The union had grieved the inclusion of the phrase on postings if it is not included in the Standard Position Description. Some supervisors had used the phrase to justify assigning work far outside the job description, such as assigning retail duties to mail processing clerks.
The union asserted that when clerks are assigned duties outside their position description, it must be done in accordance with Article 7.2 of Collective Bargaining Agreement and other applicable provisions.
This settlement also re-affirms management’s obligation to include an assignment’s “principal assignment area” when posting positions for bid.
Pool-Relief Clerks
A Memorandum of Understanding [PDF] dated March 3, 1975, outlines the guiding principles for Clerk Craft Pool-Relief duty assignments, including the establishment of these positions, their use, and out-of-schedule pay requirements and waivers.
PostalOne
An undated document [PDF] provided to the APWU by the Postal Service explains PostalOne.
It describes PostalOne as a business-to-business system that allows mailers to send detailed mailing information to the USPS electronically that is used for demand forecasting, mail acceptance and verification, postage payment processing and revenue forecasting.
It also makes detailed information about mail volume, makeup, packaging, origin and destination available to all downstream processing and delivery locations for planning purposes.
Principal Assignment Area
Article 37.3.E5 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement requires the Postal Service to include a Principal Assignment Area (PAA) on all posted duty assignments. The PAA must include the duties of the position as well as the area. Furthermore, it is insufficient merely to list a station or a branch as the PAA. [read more]
Resolutions
Resolutions [PDF] adopted at the October 2003 Clerk Craft Conference for consideration by delegates to the union’s 17th Biennial Convention in August 2004.
Rights of Employees on LWOP to Bid
An APWU Memorandum [PDF] to the field from then-Clerk Craft Director Cliff Guffey dated June 21, 2001, outlines the union’s position that clerks who are on full-time LWOP are not barred from bidding and being awarded duty assignments for which they are fully qualified.
RPW and ODIS Tests Merged
In a letter dated April 23, 2002, [PDF] the USPS notified the APWU of plans to merge the collection of data for the Domestic Revenue, Pieces, and Weight probability sampling system (RPW), and the Domestic Origin-Destination Information System (ODIS).
This merger projected an annual work-hour savings of approximately 259,000 hours. [read more]
TEs to the Detriment of PTFs
A long-standing dispute between the Postal Service and the APWU regarding the use of Transitional Employees to the detriment of career part-time flexible employees at Remote Encoding Centers (REC) was resolved Dec. 21, 2005. The settlement [PDF] requires that the USPS “cease and desist” from the practice, and awarded payment to affected PTFs not to exceed a total of $500,000. [read more]
ABOUT THE CLERK DIVISION
Jim McCarthy, Director
Pat Williams, Asst. Director “A”
Mike Morris, Asst. Director “B”
Rob Strunk, Asst. Director “C”
Telephone: 202-842-4220
Fax: 202-842-8517
The Clerk Division is the largest division of the American Postal Workers Union and represents the interests of the largest craft in the U.S. Postal Service...
