July 1, 2014 – The APWU won an important arbitration award on June 24, when Arbitrator Stephen B. Goldberg ruled that the Postal Service must determine – prior to excessing employees across craft lines – that the employees meet the minimum qualifications for the new position.
The APWU filed a national-level dispute on July 24, 2012, because the Postal Service had been reassigning excess employees in APWU crafts into positions, often Letter Carrier positions, for which they did not meet the minimum qualifications. Under Article 12 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, excess workers in APWU crafts may only be reassigned into positions for which they meet minimum qualifications. Minimum qualifications are set by official Qualification Standards for the position in question. The National Association of Letter Carriers intervened in the case on the side of the APWU.
When the dispute arose, the Postal Service had been reassigning employees without driver’s licenses into positions that require driver’s licenses. In many instances, employees who had physical conditions that made it impossible for them to carry mail or walk a Letter Carrier route were being excessed into Letter Carrier positions. Official Letter Carrier Qualification Standards require that a Letter Carrier be able to perform work that requires “arduous exertion, prolonged standing, walking, bending and reaching, and may involve handling heavy containers of mail weighing up to the allowable maximum mailing weight.” Letter carriers may be required to carry mail weighing up to 35 pounds and may be required to load or unload containers of mail weighing up to 70 pounds.
At arbitration, the Postal Service conceded that where the qualification standards for a position include a driver’s license and a safe driving record, the Postal Service cannot excess a person who cannot drive into that position. But the Postal Service continued to argue that the physical qualifications stated in the Qualification Standards for Letter Carriers were not part of the minimum qualifications an excess worker must meet to be reassigned into a Letter Carrier position. In rejecting the Postal Service’s argument, the arbitrator relied on the language of Article 12 and on the parties’ Joint Contract Interpretation Manual (JCIM). The JCIM makes it clear that minimum qualifications are determined by official Qualification Standards.
The arbitrator also rejected a Postal Service argument that it might be forced to violate the Rehabilitation Act if it is contractually prevented from reassigning an employee into a Letter Carrier job because they have a physical disability. As the arbitrator observed, the parties have a Memorandum of Understanding that applies in the case of workers who already hold light- or limited-duty assignments.
The arbitrator also rejected testimony provided by the Postal Service that the USPS never had treated physical qualification as part of the minimum qualifications for a position, citing testimony and documentary evidence provided by the APWU showing that physical qualifications in Qualification Standards are among the minimum qualifications that must be met before someone is reassigned across craft lines.
As a remedy, the arbitrator ordered the Postal Service to make whole all employees and former employees adversely affected by the violations in question based upon the July 24, 2012, filing of this dispute. The arbitrator retained jurisdiction to resolve any questions related to the make-whole remedy that the parties are unable to resolve.
– See more at: http://www.apwu.org/news/web-news-article/arbitrator-rules-excessed-employees-must-meet-minimum-qualifications#sthash.Nk3TlDg4.dpuf
To get back to the point and stay on topic. The issue isnt about choice. It’s about being forced across crafts into a position you absolutely cannot do. I was a window clerk for three years. Customer service was no problem at all. I didn’t dislike the job or environment or anything else. IT WAS PHYSICALLY DISABLING. I was excessed into a position that I clearly had no qualification for. Management was well aware of both physical conditions for years. They were happy it wasn’t causing me problems. For years they Knew and it was no problem. This arbitration case was about being forced ACROSS craft lines into a position that you are not qualified for. That being said.
About ‘volunteering’ I was in a medical emergency. Yeah! I was considering FMLA, disabilty retirement, surgery and about three or four other options. My goal was stay employed and not incur any kind of loss and to solve the problem..period.Lo and Behold… Several management and union officials stated. “Your going to another facilty with saved grade and seniority. A form 50 cut stating this and what looked like an answer to my prayers! Problem solved right? Wrong. Total loss of seniority and a three level drop in pay.
It would appear this arbitrator agrees. Not only on physical problems but driver licenses and alot of other factors. This was inconvenient for everyone. Very unpleasant in alot of cases. That is not the point or the issue. the point is people are being forced across crafts into jobs they cannot perform for a variety of reasons. How is that reasonable or productive or safe or sane for anyone?
Moving all day is what worked. Walking, bending stretching, lifting. I had no job restriction as an ET. It was the sedentary position. Sitting that caused all the physical problems. Your feeding right into managements argument. For example. I have a friend who was an over the road trucker. Forced to sit for long periods. It was agony and torture. When he transfered back into the warehouse he was walking, bending stretching, lifting and he was fine. 1 to 1 1/2 of sitting and he was completely out of his mind in pain. So…..to the comments about ‘do nothing’ work? Thank God you guys don’t work into the medical or physical therapy field. Believe it or not it was all the office workers in physical therapy that were long term out of work and all the construction guys and mechanics, etc that were going back to work much quicker. Right now I’m in an MPE position with no restrictions. 100% route completion everyday, good run numbers, no symptoms, no abscences. Sitting all day was causing complete disabilty. Got it???
KilmerET, You requested to go where you ended up, no one forced you to do so. You provided medical documentation to call center to get you out even faster. This same medical documentation is what prevented you from coming back, management wasn’t going to put you back in a job that is documented as bad for you. Sorry, but I think you are stuck where you elected to go.
And Jeff, his condition did not effect his job as an ET, as long as he has the ability to stand and move around his condition didn’t interfer with his duties. Maybe if they provided him with an orthopedic type chair that would prevent the lower back pressure he would have stayed at call center like the rest of us did. Though now there are only 9 excessed former maintenance personel left here. Everyone else elected to ereassign to other locations back into maintenance and took pay cuts going to lower level jobs. But they are happier they got tools back.
kilmeret i feel for you. i hope everything works out and they make you whole. so many lifes disrupted by this mess they call excessing. i really feel maintenance got shafted when they held us to the 50 mile rule yet clerks are allowed to go up to 100 miles. i know life isn’t always fair but i feel as a dues paying apwu member we (maintenance) should have had the same rights. can’t wait to see what this next contract does for us but if maintenance gets shafted again i’m out of the union. i’ll need the money to move back to my home state after transfering so i wouldn’t have to carry mail as my body just won’t hold up being 55+. good luck and god bless you.
I can’t get over it, all that is left is for you to be assigned a bed job. I would be ashamed to admit that I was so messed up that even sitting down was beyond my capabilities.
Sorry, but if you cannot even do a job that “sitting all day” is torture; then what the heck can you do? That you were able to perform your duties as an ET says it all, you did less as an ET than a job that you sat down at all day long. I wish I had a sit down job.
Distribution and plant clerks should be level 3 positions.How many years I had to look at them slow down our leaving time because they were bull shitting or just plain F–K–g lazy.The sob’s complain when carriers were awarded a higher level.