Southeast Michigan
AFL-CIO
Branch 2184
Contract Corner
These questions and answers were developed by Joe Golonka and various union officers in Branch 2184 to help alleviate some of the stress and confusion caused by misconceptions, myths (passed on through the years) and outright being lied to. These have been placed in our branch newsletter “Speaks” now called "Union Courier" for more than a decade.
May/June 2024
The USPS regulations for court leave, including for scheduled jury duty, are found in section 516.2 of the Employee and Labor Relations Manual (ELM). Paid court leave is granted to career regular employees but not to non-career employees such as CCAs. Such leave is granted to employees that would otherwise be in a work status or on annual leave except for the required court service. It is paid at the employee’s regular straight time rate up to eight hours a day for each day that they would otherwise be scheduled to work or on annual leave. The employee should advise management by providing a copy of their jury summons as soon as is practicable.
If an employee who reports for court service on a scheduled workday and is then excused early, he/she is required to report back to their postal installation for the balance of their scheduled tour of duty provided that an appreciable time is involved and it is feasible to do so. Employees serving a full day in court are not required to report to their postal duties until their next scheduled workday. No overtime is allowed for court service for any combination of court service and postal service duties. Employees can choose to have their work schedules temporarily changed to conform to court service days and hours by completing PS From 3971, Request for Temporary Schedule Change for Personal Convenience.
Postal Service employees may retain any court allowances and fees of $25 or less per day on days that court leave is authorized, but must remit to the Postal Service any amounts in excess of $25. Employees who perform court service outside of their basic workweek or outside of their scheduled tour of duty may retain the full amount of any jury or witness fees for this service.
May/June 2024
The applicable regulations and Contractual provisions for mutual exchanges between career letter carriers are found in the Employee and Labor Relations Manual (ELM) section 351.6 as well as in Article 12 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (JCAM pages 12-50 and 12-51). The failure to completely understand these specific requirements has led to serious and costly mistakes made by USPS management and also by some letter carriers in the past.
It is very important to note that such exchanges are merely exchanges of positions in the employee complement of different USPS installations. Career letter carriers DO NOT exchange actual bid assignments or pay grades. This is because both vacated bid positions must be posted for bid and are thus made available to all eligible letter carriers in each of the respective installations. Such postings are made in the contractually required manner per the provisions of Article 41, section 1 of the Contract as well as any applicable Local Memorandum of Understanding (LMOU) provisions.
Article 41, section 2.E of the National Agreement provides the rules for seniority placement of letter carriers that make a mutual exchange. Specifically, when mutual exchanges are made between letter carriers from one installation to another, the carriers will retain their seniority or shall take the seniority of the other exchangee, whichever is lesser.
Additionally, the officials in charge of each installation must approve the exchange. Certain types of employees are not permitted to exchange positions, such as career employees with non-career employees, bargaining unit employees with non-bargaining unit employees, and nonsupervisory employees with supervisory employees. Finally, most of the monthly issues of the Postal Record, the NALC’s official publication, have mutual exchange ads listed therein, usually near the back of the magazine.
May/June 2024
There continues to be a significant amount of misunderstanding and unfortunately, the spread of misinformation regarding Postal Service regulations pertaining to the use of seatbelts by employees while in the performance of their duties. The Postal Service seatbelt policy, which is found in Postal Employee’s Guide to Safety (Handbook EL-814, section 10.D.2) is as follows:
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You must wear safety belts at all times when the vehicle is in motion. When driving a long-life vehicle (LLV) or the carrier route vehicle (CRV), you must wear the lap belt and shoulder belt whenever the vehicle is in motion. Exception: When shoulder belts prevent you from reaching to deliver or collect from curbside mailboxes, you may unfasten the shoulder belt, but never the lap belt.
Current USPS seatbelt regulations are also found in the M-41 Handbook (City Carriers Duties and Responsibilities), section 812.3. M-41 regulations pertaining to vehicle operations further state:
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“When traveling to and from the route, when moving between park and relay points, and when entering or crossing intersecting roadways, all vehicle doors must be closed. When operating a vehicle on delivery routes and traveling in intervals of 500 feet (1/10 mile) or less at speeds not exceeding 15 MPH between delivery stops, the door on the driver’s side may be left open. Do not finger mail while driving or hold mail in your hands while the vehicle is in motion. You must use mirror to check for pedestrians ahead, in back, and on both sides before placing the vehicle in motion.”
Unfortunately, many Postal Service seatbelt and vehicle operations rules are frequently ignored by some letter carriers who are in too much of a rush to take the time to comply with them, thereby seriously jeopardizing their own safety as well as that of others. Additionally, they are risking serious disciplinary action. What’s your hurry, anyway?
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