Maintenance Wins Significant Award

The APWU won an important arbitration award on August 06, when Arbitrator Shyam Das ruled that the Postal Service may not detail a maintenance craft employee to perform higher level work in a different occupational group to avoid paying overtime to an employee within that same occupational group. The issue, as framed by Arbitrator Das, was:

Whether management must use overtime to cover a temporary vacancy in the maintenance craft instead of detailing an employee to a higher level assignment under the provisions of Article 25?

and

Whether there is a violation of the National Agreement when an employee from a different occupational group is assigned higher level work on straight time, rather than assigning overtime to an employee within the same occupational group?

Arbitrator Das refuted all of management's contentions and ruled affirmative on both issues, consistent with Article 7.2 of the National Agreement.

National Maintenance Director Steven Raymer remarked, “There are many regional cases held against this lead dispute. The significance of this award should not be understated. It provides enforcement for the distinctions in our occupational groups which would be meaningless without the job security of knowing that the occupational group will perform its work, even at the overtime rate. The Postal Service attempted to chip away at our long standing enforcement of work assignments for our occupational groups based on the rate of pay the employee was earning. This award puts an end to management’s ill-conceived attack on our wages and job security.”