Clerk Division & USPS Establish Q&As to Clarify TACS Settlement Issues

On February 26, 2026, the parties jointly agreed to a set of Questions and Answers (Q&As) to confirm their intentions in the recent TACS settlement agreement. The September 30, 2025, settlement agreement returned many of the time and attendance duties in TACS to clerk craft employees, primarily Lead Clerks. It also gave clerks performing TACS entries and allied duties access to Enterprise Resource Management System (eRMS) Rural Management Support System (RMSS) and the OT Admin system. Once the settlement agreement was distributed to the field, it spawned additional questions from both management and the bargaining unit concerning the intent of the parties. This led to the establishment of the Q&As.

One of the problems involved the exception for TACS duties being performed in Level 18 Stand-Alone offices. The parties agreed first to the definition of a Stand-Alone office, which is an independent Level 18 office with no RMPOs or stations/branches reporting to it. Secondly, only in these types of offices, postmasters would be allowed to perform the TACS duties, but it would count as one hour of their maximum fifteen hours per week of bargaining unit work that postmasters are allowed to perform.  Window transactions and distribution task are the only other clerk bargaining unit duties they can perform.

The prominent issue for the APWU was to develop a mechanism for identifying the one hour on a postmaster’s e1260. One of the Q&As describes the manner in which the TACS duties will be recorded, stating, “The Web 1260 will be modified to ensure recording of one (1) hour per week for the performance of TACS duties by all Level 18 Stand-Alone offices.”

The Q&As go on to provide an exception for new employees during their orientation period(s), assigning TACS duties to Training Technicians conducting the orientations. Additional Q&As answer inquiries such as the performance of TACS duties in Customer Retention Team (CRT) sites and the Kansas City Stamp Fulfillment Center, the pecking order for assigning TACS entries and allied duties in offices with Lead Clerks, and how TACS duties will be assigned in offices with no Lead Clerk.

The significance of the TACS Settlement Agreement and subsequent Q&As cannot be overstated. The Clerk Craft Jobs Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), #3, Audit of EAS Jobs, states in part, “… however, that if particular duties and responsibilities may have evolved from either an APWU craft position or an EAS position, the Employer will apply a presumption that the duties will be returned to the APWU craft.

Clerk Division Director Lamont Brooks explained, “Our position has always been, in accordance with the Clerk Craft Jobs MOU, that any time duties are being performed by EAS and the bargaining unit, that the presumption must be the awarding of the work to the bargaining unit. In the case of TACS entries and allied duties, that means the clerk craft must be assigned this work.” This position aligns with the APWU’s national dispute that is currently before Arbitrator Newman and has yet to be fully resolved.

The final piece of the TACS Settlement Agreement that has yet to be settled involves the additional TACS training that is supposed to include items such as RMSS and OT Admin. The Postal Service’s January 16 notification letter expressed its version of what this training would contain. The Clerk Division does not agree with this proposed training, as it actually removes work previously performed by TACS Clerks and severely limits clerks from TACS entries and allied duties that is bargaining unit work. The APWU has informed the Postal Service of our disagreement with the proposed training and further discussions have ensued. Clerks can’t be held accountable when not properly trained. We will challenge the training via a national dispute if not resolved, in accordance with Article 19.

It is the Clerk Division’s position that all non-managerial/non-supervisory work is APWU clerk bargaining unit work unless identified by management as work exclusive to EAS. Clerks performing those duties, by the Postal Service’s admission would be entitle to higher level EAS pay.

Clerks can’t issue discipline, approve leave, or participate as management in the Article 15 grievance-arbitration process.

The 9-30-25 TACS Settlement Agreement and the 2-26-26 TACS Questions & Answers are linked to this article for further information.