Thousands of Part-Timers To Be Converted Aug. 27

Thousands of Part-Time Flexibles and Part-Time Regulars in the Clerk and Motor Vehicle Crafts will be converted to regular Aug. 27 under the terms of the 2010-2015 Collective Bargaining Agreement. “This is an important achievement of our contract,” Director of Industrial Relations Mike Morris said, “although we are continuing to battle with the Postal Service to ensure that management adheres to the rules we agreed upon during negotiations.”

All Clerk Craft Part-Time Flexibles (PTFs) in Level 21-and-above offices will be converted to regular at the start of pay period 19-2011. All Part-Time Regulars (PTRs) — regardless of the size of the office they work in — also will be converted.

In the Motor Vehicle Service Craft, all PTFs and Part-Time Regulars (PTRs) will be converted to regular.

The newly converted regulars should be assigned to residual full-time assignments — with either traditional schedules or non-traditional schedules. Non-Tradional Full-Time (NTFT) assignments can range from 30 hours per week to 48 hours per week. There are no residual Non-Traditional Full-Time vacancies, however, because management failed to allow proper opportunities for union input, and failed to post NTFT positions for bid by regulars. But rumors have been swirling that management plans to assign the newly converted regulars non-traditional schedules.

Controversy over the conversions deepened when the union learned that postal officials at the national level had notified managers in the field that the new regulars could be designated as unencumbered and/or unassigned employees with non-traditional schedules — even though the duty assignments had not been posted for bid.

The APWU filed a Step 4 Interpretive Dispute on Aug. 17, pointing out that the Memorandum of Understanding that established the rules governing NTFT duty assignments does not provide for unencumbered or unassigned schedules.

APWU President Cliff Guffey said he believes management is trying to force senior employees to resign or retire by threatening to excess them. “If you work in an office with junior employees, they must be excessed from the office before you, whether or not they occupy non-traditional schedules,” he said.

“So don’t be intimidated to quit, and don’t be coerced into bidding on a non-traditional assignment unless you want it,” he advised.

In addition to the conversion of the Clerk Craft PTRs and PTFs in Level 21-and-above offices, the contract states that in Level 20-and-below offices, wherever the union can demonstrate the existence of duty assignments of 30 hours or more per week, management must create them. PTFs in larger offices were converted to regular under the terms of the 2006-2010 contract.