Early-Retirement Info Wrong, Burrus Tells Postal Service

APWU President William Burrus has notified the Postal Service of significant errors in information the USPS provided to employees eligible for Voluntary Early Retirement (VER), and has requested management’s “immediate attention to these matters” so that employees do not suffer irrevocable harm as a result.

In a Sept. 9, 2008, letter he outlined an error concerning the deadline for employees to withdraw applications for early retirement, as well as two errors in the Questions and Answers prepared by management and mailed to eligible employees in August. 

The letters offering eligible employees early retirement notified them that VER applications must be received no later than 8:30 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on Sept. 30, and said their retirement would become effective Dec. 31, 2008. However, employees were incorrectly informed that the decision to retire also would become irrevocable at 8:30 p.m. ET on Sept. 30, Burrus said.

“An agency must permit an employee to withdraw his or her retirement application before the effective date of retirement,” he wrote. “In this VER, the effective retirement date is Dec. 31, 2008; therefore, eligible employees have the right to withdraw their retirement application no later than Dec. 31, 2008.

“The only exception for declining a request to withdraw an application before the effective date of retirement,” he continued, “is when the agency ‘has a valid reason and explains that reason in writing to the employee.’” [U.S. Office of Personnel Management CSRS and FERS Handbook for Personnel and Payroll Offices, Chapter 41, Part 41A3.] 

Simply asserting that “the Postal Service will rely on your decision in developing its complement management plan” does not constitute a valid reason or written explanation of why an employee’s retirement application would be irrevocable, Burrus said.

The union president reminded the Postal Service of a pending dispute over management’s failure to provide individual and group pre-retirement counseling, and noted that the USPS is scheduling retirement counseling on or after the “irrevocable date” of Sept. 30. 

If management believes the instructions regarding irrevocability are proper, he asked the USPS to inform the APWU so that the union could take appropriate steps to resolve the disagreement.

Wrong Answers
The August mailing to eligible employees also included a set of Questions and Answers about VER that contained two incorrect responses. The offending replies were to Question 12, “How is high three salary determined?” and Question 35, “What will happen to my health benefits?”

The union first informed the Postal Service of the errors in the Questions and Answers in July, and management posted a corrected set of Questions and Answers on its employee Web site, LiteBlue, on Sept. 5, 2008, (where Question 12 is now listed as Question 13 and Question 35 is now listed as Question 36).

However, employees have not been notified individually of the correct information. “It cannot be assumed that every VER eligible employee accesses USPS LiteBlue or is responsible to access such information in that forum,” Burrus wrote. 

“Notwithstanding the parties’ pending dispute concerning Voluntary Early Retirement on other matters, it is important that employees receive the correct information regarding their rights relative to this issue,” he said. 

Employees Should Reject VER
Burrus has repeatedly urged workers to reject the early-retirement offer. “The opportunity to retire early may be tempting,” he told delegates to the union’s convention in August, but it is not being offered for the employee's benefit. "Our advice is: Don't Go!”

“Early-outs are not new, having been offered in many industries," he said. "But they are called 'buyouts,' and employees have been offered healthy cash incentives. Every APWU-represented employee who leaves early will save the USPS hundreds of thousands of dollars."

Postal workers who retire early will face a life-long reduced annuity, he noted, "And with the economy nearing a recession, the opportunity to replace postal employment with another job after retirement has diminished.” 

The APWU is demanding that the Postal Service offer cash incentives to eligible employees, and that the early-retirement offer be extended to all eligible APWU-represented employees.