Maintenance Craft Wins $8.64 Million Remedy for Improper Subcontracting

Arbitrator Shyam Das has ordered the Postal Service to pay Maintenance Craft employees $8.64 million for improperly subcontracting work that could have been performed by bargaining unit employees, Maintenance Craft Director Steve Raymer has announced. The decision, issued on Dec. 11, concludes four rounds of hearings on management’s decision to subcontract the wiring of more than 7,800 of the largest Associate Offices with computer cable.

Das first ruled on Feb. 11, 2010, that management violated the Collective Bargaining Agreement when it decided unilaterally in 1996 to subcontract the work as part the Associate Office Infrastructure program. Das instructed the USPS to assign such work to the bargaining unit in the future, but returned the issue of the remedy for the past violation to the APWU and USPS.

After the 2010 ruling, the Postal Service engaged in its “normal pattern” of “delay and obfuscate,” asserting that no monetary remedy was appropriate and refusing to supply the union with information necessary to determine a monetary remedy, Raymer said. “Consequently, the APWU had no choice except to go back to the arbitrator,” Raymer said. In two subsequent rulings issued on May 1, 2013, and Oct. 9, 2013, Das rejected USPS arguments that no monetary remedy was appropriate." 

To reach a summary of the award, click here.