MVS Division Settles Two National Disputes with USPS Management

The Motor Vehicle Division recently settled two national disputes that had significant impact on MVS members.

USPS/APWU Case Q15V-4Q-C 19224673/HQTV20190130 addressed the pay anomalies that can occur when a Postal Support Employee (PSE) is hired with a salary exception for a higher salary rate than is authorized on the Article 9 Postal pay scale.

Although the parties had previously addressed many issues with PSE salary exceptions and the problems that impact not only the PSE’s but also that could potentially affect career employees who were not hired with salary exceptions and were making less than junior PSEs with salary exceptions.

The pay anomaly in this dispute occurs when a PSE with a salary exception is converted to a level-8 career position, bids down to a level-7 position and subsequently bids back up to the higher level. Often the former PSE’s salary would exceed the salary of senior level-8 employees who hadn’t had a change of level. This settlement establishes that this MOU, and the previous PSE Salary Exception MOUs take precedence over the promotion language in ELM Chapter 422.125. It also includes the make-whole provision for any employees who were senior and being paid less than the PSEs with salary exceptions who were subsequently converted to career.

USPS/APWU Case 6X 18C-6X-C 22072308/HQTV20220003 concerned the maximization of part time flexible employees to full time. In 2021 the USPS realigned their internal structure and assigned their Postal Vehicle Service (PVS) and other transportation operations to the Logistics Department.

An unintended consequence of this realignment was that, because of the eliminating of and the establishing of different finance numbers, the maximization activity for the previous 6-month period was lost.

The maximization criteria is when an employee works 39 or more hours a week for 6 months, the senior employee on the part time flexible rolls should be converted to full time status. This language can be found in Article 7.3.B and relevant MOUs. This settlement is intended for the local union and management to review the maximization information and determine what entitlements are necessary to identify and make the appropriate employees whole.

If the local parties cannot agree on any portions of the corrective entitlements, the issues in disagreement should be identified and those issue(s) should be referred to the APWU national and USPS headquarters parties for resolution. Although in many installations, the senior PTF has already been converted to full time status, local leadership should ensure that the conversion was timely and the identified employee(s) was made whole.