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Employees Improperly Denied Early Outs
To Be Granted Retirement in December

APWU Web News Article #54-05, Oct. 17, 2005

Under the terms of the one-year contract extension ratified in August, eligible employees who were improperly denied Voluntary Early Retirement in 2003 and/or 2004 will be granted opportunities for early outs, with the retirements taking effect Dec. 31, 2005.

Eligible employees will be mailed offers on or about Oct. 31. Employees’ early-retirement decisions will be irrevocable at 5 p.m., Friday, Dec. 2.

The Office of Personnel Management authorized the Postal Service to offer early retirement to the covered individuals on Sept. 12, 2005. OPM approval was necessary because its previous authorization had expired.

As a result of OPM’s authorization, APWU can now provide some specific information about the implementation of the early-retirement offering.

This is NOT a new opportunity for early retirement. Employees covered by the agreement are those who were:

• Eligible for early-out retirement as of February 2004;
  
Denied the opportunity to retire early, and

Appealed the decision to deny them early retirement via
the Administrative Dispute Resolution Process.

The contract extension ended appeals on this issue as of June 2005; therefore names cannot be added to the list of covered employees.

Details can be found in management’s instructions to the field:
USPS Guidelines for Processing VER – Attachment A
Management Timeline – Attachment B
Sample Letter – Attachment C
Sample Approval Letter to Identified Employees – Attachment D
Sample Disapproval Letter – Attachment E
Acknowledgement of Irrevocability – Attachment F
VER Status Letter – Attachment G

Employees who appealed the denial of their previous requests for early retirement have been grouped into various categories:

• Employees who are eligible for VER. These employees will receive an offer by mail on or about Oct. 31, 2005;
Employees who are eligible for Optional Retirement on or before Dec. 31, 2005. Postal Service records show these employees are eligible to retire without an early-out offer, or they will be by Dec. 31.

Employees who no longer work for the Postal Service. Most of these employees retired because their early retirement application was eventually granted or because they reached eligibility for optional retirement.

Ineligible employees. Most of these employees did not work in crafts represented by the APWU, or they were ineligible for early retirement as of February 2004.

Questions?

The VER process is being administered by Postal Service headquarters, so local postal managers may not be able to answer questions at this time. By the time covered employees receive offers in the mail, however, District offices should be able to answer questions about eligibility.

The Industrial Relations Department is coordinating implementation of the process for the APWU. You can contact the Industrial Relations Department by mail at 1300 L St., NW, Washington, DC 20005-4128; by phone at 202-842-4273; by fax at 202-842-8587, or via e-mail to: vera@apwu.org.

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