Clerk Officers Outline Criteria for Disbursement of $56 Million Payout for ‘Global Settlement’ of Violations of Article 1.6.B

In a conference call with local and state presidents, the APWU’s Clerk Division officers outlined the criteria for distributing the $56 million lump-sum penalty portion of the settlement that resolves a decades-long dispute over postmasters and supervisors in small offices performing Clerk Craft work.

Clerk Craft Director Clint Burelson announced that:

• Employees in Level 15, 16, and 18 offices who were on the rolls as Part-Time Flexibles (PTFs) or who occupied Non-Traditional Full-Time (NTFT) assignments will be paid on a “share basis” for the period from May 7, 2011, to Dec. 5, 2014. 
• Each week that a Clerk Craft PTF or Clerk Craft employee in a NTFT assignment was on the rolls during the time frame will count as one share.  (There are a total of 187 possible shares.  A total of 13,645 PTF or NTFT Clerk Craft employees were on the rolls at some point during that time frame. Each share is valued at approximately $26.23.) 
• A PTF employee or an employee occupying an NTFT assignment who was on the rolls for the entire period will receive approximately $4,900. 
• The initial disbursement will total $44.8 million, with the remaining 20 percent to be held in reserve for errors, such as overlooked employees. 
• The second disbursement of $11.2 million will take place after the initial disbursement has been completed.
• The APWU expects to provide the names of the employees to be paid to the Postal Service in mid-September.

The goal of the settlement was to compensate employees who were not guaranteed 40 hours through the payments, Burelson said.

In addition to designating $56 million for payment to Clerk Craft employees, the “Global Settlement” signed on Dec. 5, 2014, created a far simpler method for resolving subsequent disputes pertaining to postmasters and supervisors performing Clerk Craft work in small offices.

“The Postal Service has paid millions of dollars for violating the Collective Bargaining Agreement since the settlement was signed last year,” Burelson pointed out.

“More importantly, the Postal Service has hired more than 1,000 members of the community as career employees to perform the work that was improperly performed by postmasters and supervisors.  The hiring of career employees reduces the stress to employees working in understaffed post offices and will increase the quality of postal services to the people in local communities,” he added.

Burelson thanked locals and state leaders and Clerk Craft National Business Agents (NBAs) for their input into the decision-making process, and gave special recognition to Assistant Clerk Craft Director Lamont Brooks, who took the lead on the project, and to Assistant Director Lynn Pallas-Barber, who assisted. He also praised the contributions of NBAs Bob Kessler, Billy Woods and Willie Mellen, and Mike Barrett of the Buffalo NY Local, who sifted through the data provided by the Postal Service and helped analyze it.

Burelson also thanked former officers in the last administration and the many representatives and members through the years that provided the foundation and leverage for the settlement. 

At the Aug. 31 teleconference, Assistant Director Lamont Brooks explained the painstaking steps officers used to determine the best methods for disbursing the money. Other large-scale settlements going back to 1998 were reviewed, and various methods for distributing the payments were considered, he said.

Given the fact that more than 13,000 employees are involved and many variables are associated with the circumstances of each employee, the officers said they believe this was the fairest way to distribute the $56 million lump-sum penalty for the violations of the global settlement.

The settlement is among the biggest in the history of the APWU.

Clerk Craft National Business Agents and Regional Coordinators have been briefed on the method of distribution.  If you have any questions, please contact your local or state president, who will then contact an NBA if they are unable to answer the question.  Updates on the process will be provided as they become available.

For additional background on the Dec. 5, 2014, settlement, click here.