Clerk Craft Resolves Dispute on Scheme Requirements

The APWU and USPS reached agreement on disputes involving scheme requirements and dexterity qualifications, Clerk Craft Director Clint Burelson has announced.

The disputes arose in February and March 2015, when management unilaterally eliminated scheme requirements and dexterity qualifications from all Clerk Craft duty assignments.

Management’s unilateral action violated the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), the union asserted. 

The settlement restores management’s contractual obligation to include scheme requirements on bid duty assignments in accordance with Chapter 3 of the Handbook M-5, Schemes: Construction, Assignment, Training, and Proficiency. Scheme training and dexterity training will be conducted manually until the Postal Service develops training methods, which the APWU will review. The APWU can challenge any changes.

“Many thanks and much appreciation goes to the many members, stewards, and officers who filed grievances and therefore assisted in providing the necessary leverage for Assistant Clerk Craft Director Lamont Brooks and the Clerk Craft to negotiate the favorable settlement,” Burelson said. “This demonstrates once again that what happens at the local level has a direct impact on what we can accomplish at the national level.”

The settlement did not address standard position descriptions that include a scheme requirement in the qualification standard, such as the Level 7 Parcel Post Distributor (Machine).  This requirement will continue as before.

Local grievances that were held pending resolution of this dispute “will be resolved in accordance with this agreement and local fact circumstances,” the settlement says. “If the parties are unable to resolve the local cases based on the settlement because they contain issues not covered by the agreement, they may continue pursuing the cases through the grievance procedure.”