Printer-Friendly Page
Maintenance Division Officers |
|
Agreement Upgrades Level 6
Maintenance Support Clerks, Updates Staffing
APWU Web News Article 55-2012, May 9, 2012
The APWU and USPS have reached an agreement that upgrades Level 6 Maintenance Support Clerk (MSC) positions one level and updates the staffing criterion for the position, Maintenance Director Steve Raymer has announced. The May 9 agreement [PDF] was reached as a result of the union’s objections to the Postal Service’s Oct. 27, 2011, notice of proposed changes to administrative staffing positions under Maintenance Management Order (MMO) 074-00 [PDF]. The Postal Service planned to overhaul the staffing chart based on an extensive survey and review of the duties and responsibilities of MSCs and the impact of technology on the position.
“The issues were fully discussed among all national Maintenance Craft officers, both headquarters officers and NBAs,” Raymer said. “We decided that resolving the matter would better serve our members than a protracted dispute. If we had chosen the latter course of action, the Postal Service would have unilaterally implemented the staffing changes, which would have had immediate and lasting negative effects on members holding MSC duty assignments. In the end, we believe the protections and gains we made warranted an agreement.”
The agreement provides that on the first day of the pay period immediately following issuance of MMO 057-12, all Level 6 MSC members will be upgraded one pay level. The upgrade will be implemented without any reposting of positions or other impact on the duty assignment, Raymer said.
In addition to the obvious benefit for MSCs, there are benefits for the craft as a whole, he said. “The upgrade will result in the elimination of the occupational group and level, and will make the administration of Article 12 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement more equitable for all.” Article 12 governs principles of seniority, posting and reassignments.
As a result of the upgrade, decisions about which MSCs will be impacted by management decisions that result in a reduction in staffing cannot be based on a management whim. The employee’s installation seniority will be the determining factor from among the single occupational group and level. In the past, decisions about whether Level 6 or Level 7 MSCs would be affected were arbitrary, Raymer said.
The agreement provides that if an AMP or network consolidations occurs, the new formula for staffing MSC duty assignments will be applied to the gaining and losing installations. It also permits attrition to take place. “This is done to minimize the adverse impact on the employees,” Raymer said.
The agreement also prohibits any involuntary reassignment by the Postal Service for one year except in the case of an AMP. “This is intended to avoid the need for excessing arising solely from the new staffing chart,” he added.
The agreement also notes that local fact circumstances could permit an increase in MSC staffing. “The addition of this language is important because some offices assign the MSCs additional duties or support their stations and branches fully,” Raymer said.
The new MMO also stipulates that Bulk Mail Centers, also known as NDCs, are allocated one additional MSC position provided at least 20 Maintenance Craft positions are supported.
Settlement
Clarifies
204B Language
(05/08/12) The APWU has reached a Step 4 settlement with the
Postal Service that clarifies language in the 2006 Collective Bargaining
Agreement (CBA) regarding the eligibility of Maintenance Craft employees
who were detailed to non-bargaining unit positions to obtain preferred
duty assignments, Maintenance Director Steve Raymer has announced.
[read more]
APWU,
USPS Settle
Dispute on Covering
Custodial Absences
(05/01/12) The APWU and Postal Service have settled a grievance regarding the proper procedure for covering absences of custodians, Maintenance Craft Director Steve Raymer has announced. The April 25 agreement stipulates that in offices with multiple custodians, the staff that is present can work additional hours, using additional part-time flexible hours or overtime for full-time regulars. [read more]
The 1,500
New Maintenance Jobs Identified
(04/13/12) The Postal Service recently identified the 1,500 new Maintenance Craft duty assignments that will be established under the terms of the 2010-2015 Collective Bargaining Agreement. The new jobs will be created at independent post offices where all custodial work was contracted out. [read more]
Changes to Custodial Subcontracting Rules
Steve Raymer
Maintenance Division Director
(This article by first appeared in the May/June 2012 issue of The American Postal Worker magazine.)
May 23, 2012, is the date by which the Postal Service must return subcontracted custodial duties at stations, branches and other facilities of an independent installation to APWU members.
|
Subcontracting of custodial duties is strictly limited by changes to the 2010-2015 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). In prior agreements, each station, branch, annex, VMF, etc. was evaluated for subcontracting separately, with a formula based on square footage applied to each one. Under the terms of the current contract, management combines the measurements of the various facilities of an independent installation and applies the formula to the combined total.
As a result, the number of facilities eligible for custodial subcontracting is much, much lower.
The 18,000 Square-Foot Formula
In previous contracts, the formula took the gross interior square footage and divided that number by 18,000. Then it divided the exterior square footage (everything outside the building) by 500,000. Each of the calculations
was carried to the fourth decimal point and the two results were added. If the total was less than 1, the Postal Service could subcontract the custodial work. If the result was 1 or greater, the Postal Service was barred from contracting out the work.
If the facility qualified for subcontracting and the Postal Service decided to do so, the local union president had to be notified of the calculations and decision. This procedure has come to be known as the “18,000 square foot formula.”
Formula Changes
The change in the current CBA did not alter the 18,000 or 500,000 numbers in the calculations, but it changed what the numbers are applied to. Now, the Postal Service must add the interior square footage and exterior square footage of all the facilities in an installation and apply the 18,000 square foot formula to the combined total.
Put another way, if the main office cannot be contracted out, none of the other facilities within the installation can be subcontracted. For example, let’s say the Main Post Office has four stations, and the gross interior of each station is 8,000 square feet, and the exterior of each is 25,000 square feet. The Main Post Office has 76,000 of interior square footage and 100,000 of exterior square footage.
Under the previous Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), only the Main Office was ineligible for contracting out. The calculation was as follows: 76,000 18,000 = 4.222 and 100,000 500,000 = .2000. The total is 4.422. Because the total exceeded 1, the custodial work could not be contracted out.
However, each station had a different result. The calculation was as follows: 8,000 18,000 = .4444 interior and 25,000 500,000 = .0500, for a total of .4944 for each station.
Because the totals were less than one, the Postal Service was permitted to subcontract the custodial work at each station. It’s important to note that this formula is designed solely to determine whether subcontracting is permitted. It has nothing to do with how much custodial work is required.
Modifications
The modification to the Cleaning Services MOU works like this: The interior of the Main Office plus the interiors of the stations equal 108,000 square feet. The exterior of the facilities equals 200,000 square feet when they are added together. Now divide these numbers by 18,000 and 500,000 respectively. Add the totals and the result is 6.400. This means none of the facilities is eligible for custodial subcontracting.
The Maintenance Jobs MOU also requires management to use the modified Cleaning Services MOU to determine current custodial staffing.
Now it is up to each local to ensure that the custodial staffing packages are complete and accurate. Each individual facility will continue to get its own staffing package, in accordance with the MS-47 Handbook. Precisely how the required work is scheduled and performed, and the effect on current and additional duty assignments, is determined at the local level.
Please note, however, that installations with stations and branches typically qualify as 100-work-year offices under Article 8, which means a full-time regular employee is scheduled for 8 hours within 9 hours.
If your local establishes duty assignments with work at more than one location, the time driving between them must be on the clock. The provision in Section 1.A. of the Maintenance Jobs MOU that permits non-compensable commuting time applies only in the small offices for the establishment of a cross-installation duty assignment. The meal-time and break-in-service requirements can only be accomplished in offices in which a full-time job can be established as 8 hours within 10 hours.
More New Jobs
The Collective Bargaining Agreement required the Postal Service to identify 1,500 post offices that would be returned to the Maintenance Craft by March 31, 2012, in accordance with Section 1.A of the Maintenance Jobs MOU.
This action is separate and distinct from the station and branch requirement. A list of the offices identified by the Postal Service will be posted on the APWU Web site by the time of this article goes to print.
There are also additional duty assignments for our highest level members, the ET-11s. While 10 brand new duty assignments are established in the Maintenance Technical Support Center in Norman, OK (not the training center), there is an ongoing process of implementing updated Help Desk procedures. The impact on existing or additional ET-11 duty assignments is yet undetermined.
Still More to Come
The union and management still must work on the other items in the Maintenance Jobs MOU. There must be a joint audit of contracted-out work to determine if the craft can perform the work more efficiently.
The Maintenance Craft officers expect a large impact, specifically where the Postal Service’s Field Maintenance Office has routinely contracted out our work.
An audit of EAS positions using a National Labor Relation Board (NLRB) process is ongoing. This process is intended to return work being performed by management to the craft. If an EAS employee is doing work that does not involve supervising employees, it is bargaining unit work.
For example, swapping out a hard drive or installing a printer is not issuing discipline or hiring anyone or anything else that falls outside the scope of bargaining unit work. Whether is it troubleshooting a network, routine data-entry or performing repairs or a myriad of other things, if EAS employees are doing it, our work comes back.
The Postal Service must still identify at least 60 additional duty assignments as a jump start on the above items. Please stay tuned.
