The Postal Service violated the 2010 Agreement by failing to assign newly-created Sales Retention Team positions to the clerk craft.
On October 19, 2012, the Postal Service notified APWU, as well as all other craft unions and management associations, that it intended to pilot test a sales team concept in St. Petersburg, Florida. The pilot was to test a variety of sales and marketing related duties, including contacting customers for follow-up after a sale, customer retention, and telesales upselling. According to the Postal Service notice, the “Sales Solution Team”, was to be composed of EAS personnel and craft employees on the Office of Workers Compensation Programs (OWCP) periodic rolls. In fact, all members of the Sales Solution Team were bargaining unit employees on the OWCP rolls: seven city carriers, seven rural carriers, two clerks, and two mail handlers.
By subsequent letters dated June 27, 2013, July 16, 2013, October 4, 2013, November 21, 2013, and January 31, 2014, the Postal Service advised the Union that the pilot test (renamed the Sales Retention Team (SRT)) was being expanded to eleven additional sites. As of August 2015, there were 372 SRT employees, all of whom were on the OWCP rolls, working at 12 Postal Service sites. Included among these employees were 206 city carriers, 49 rural carriers, 38 mail handlers, 75 employees in crafts represented by APWU, and 4 EAS employees.
On November 3, 2013, the Union initiated a national dispute challenging the Postal Service failure to assign SRT jobs to the clerk craft and to post those jobs for clerk craft bidding.
Document Type: National Arbitration
Craft: Clerk