Early Retirement Regulations Awaiting Final Approval

Burrus Update #7-03, May 9, 2003

A meeting was conducted today, May 9, 2003, with USPS officials to discuss the agreement to offer voluntary early retirement to all eligible APWU-represented employees. As we reported last month, the USPS request to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) for authority to offer early retirement cannot be approved until OPM finalizes new regulations. (See Burrus Update #6-03.)

The union has been informed that the new regulations have been drafted and await approval by the OPM director. Once the director approves them, they will be sent to the Office of Management and Budget for further review.

In March and again in early April, OPM notified the union that the new regulations would be completed by the end of April. April has now passed and no further approximate date has been provided.

As soon as a new approximate date is provided, we will announce it.

The union has requested that postal management initiate a review of the number of employees who are interested in early retirement, so that when the regulations are issued postal officials will have a reasonable estimate of the number of employees who will be eligible.

Further information will be made available as it is received.

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