Second Round of Payments for POStPlan Staffing

On April 26, 2021, the Postal Service informed the Clerk Craft that it had partially input the second round of payments required by the national-level award, dated June 17, 2017 authored by Arbitrator Stephen B. Goldberg in Case #Q10C-4Q-C-15206043. The arbitrator’s award was due to the Postal Service’s failure to honor a December 22, 2014 agreement between the parties surrounding the POStPlan Staffing for Remotely Managed Post Offices (RMPOs) and Level 18 post offices.

 Under the December 22, 2014 agreement, the USPS was to staff Level 4 and 6 RMPOs with Clerk Craft bargaining unit employees (PSEs and NTFTs/FTRs). Furthermore, PSEs were to be removed from Level 18 offices and only career clerks were to staff those post offices. The Postal Service delayed in properly staffing these offices and the APWU filed a national-level dispute regarding the proper remedy. Arbitrator Goldberg ordered a make whole remedy for “all employees who have improperly been denied Clerk Craft work as a result of the Postal Service failure to comply in a timely fashion with the POStPlan MOU”.

The parties ultimately agreed on a $49.9 million settlement for these violations and the first round of payments was accomplished beginning in June of 2020. However, some of the funds were held back to ensure that all affected clerks would receive back pay. The Postal Service informed Clerk Craft Director Lamont Brooks that it was in the process of making payroll programming changes that would delay the payments until the fall of 2021.  However, after the APWU objected to such a delay, management began to manually input payees into their GATS program. 

As of April 26, 2021, the Postal Service stated that it has entered 2,440 payees in several locations throughout the country. Those employees should see the payment on their April 30, 2021 paychecks. Members who do not receive a backpay check on that date are asked to be patient as management inputs the information for payees. This process will take at least five pay periods to complete. As soon as possible, the APWU will provide access in the Members Only section of our website. Once that access is provided, the member can go to the link “POStPlan Payment” and enter your Employee Identification Number (EIN). If your name is on the list for payment, it will show the amount you are to be paid. Once you enter your EIN, if you are not entitled/eligible for payment, it will state “there is no record”.