APWU: Clerk Officers Outline Criteria for Disbursement of $56 Million Payout for ‘Global Settlement’ of Violations of Article 1.6.B
08/31/2015 – In a conference call with local and state presidents, the APWU’s Clerk Division officers outlined the criteria for distributing the $56 million lump-sum penalty portion of the settlement that resolves a decades-long dispute over postmasters and supervisors in small offices performing Clerk Craft work.
Clerk Craft Director Clint Burelson announced that:
- Employees in Level 15, 16, and 18 offices who were on the rolls as Part-Time Flexibles (PTFs) or who occupied Non-Traditional Full-Time (NTFT) assignments will be paid on a “share basis” for the period from May 7, 2011, to Dec. 5, 2014.
- Each week that a Clerk Craft PTF or Clerk Craft employee in a NTFT assignment was on the rolls during the time frame will count as one share. (There are a total of 187 possible shares. A total of 13,645 PTF or NTFT Clerk Craft employees were on the rolls at some point during that time frame. Each share is valued at approximately $26.23.)
- A PTF employee or an employee occupying an NTFT assignment who was on the rolls for the entire period will receive approximately $4,900.
- The initial disbursement will total $44.8 million, with the remaining 20 percent to be held in reserve for errors, such as overlooked employees.
- The second disbursement of $11.2 million will take place after the initial disbursement has been completed.
- The APWU expects to provide the names of the employees to be paid to the Postal Service in mid-September.
The goal of the settlement was to compensate employees who were not guaranteed 40 hours through the payments, Burelson said.
In addition to designating $56 million for payment to Clerk Craft employees, the “Global Settlement” signed on Dec. 5, 2014, created a far simpler method for resolving subsequent disputes pertaining to postmasters and supervisors performing Clerk Craft work in small offices.
“The Postal Service has paid millions of dollars for violating the Collective Bargaining Agreement since the settlement was signed last year,” Burelson pointed out.
“More importantly, the Postal Service has hired more than 1,000 members of the community as career employees to perform the work that was improperly performed by postmasters and supervisors. The hiring of career employees reduces the stress to employees working in understaffed post offices and will increase the quality of postal services to the people in local communities,” he added.
Burelson thanked locals and state leaders and Clerk Craft National Business Agents (NBAs) for their input into the decision-making process, and gave special recognition to Assistant Clerk Craft Director Lamont Brooks, who took the lead on the project, and to Assistant Director Lynn Pallas-Barber, who assisted. He also praised the contributions of NBAs Bob Kessler, Billy Woods and Willie Mellen, and Mike Barrett of the Buffalo NY Local, who sifted through the data provided by the Postal Service and helped analyze it.
Burelson also thanked former officers in the last administration and the many representatives and members through the years that provided the foundation and leverage for the settlement.
At the Aug. 31 teleconference, Assistant Director Lamont Brooks explained the painstaking steps officers used to determine the best methods for disbursing the money. Other large-scale settlements going back to 1998 were reviewed, and various methods for distributing the payments were considered, he said.
Given the fact that more than 13,000 employees are involved and many variables are associated with the circumstances of each employee, the officers said they believe this was the fairest way to distribute the $56 million lump-sum penalty for the violations of the global settlement.
The settlement is among the biggest in the history of the APWU.
Clerk Craft National Business Agents and Regional Coordinators have been briefed on the method of distribution. If you have any questions, please contact your local or state president, who will then contact an NBA if they are unable to answer the question. Updates on the process will be provided as they become available.
For additional background on the Dec. 5, 2014, settlement, click here.
Think this is a cop out way to hand out the money. If this is truly for office sizes 15,16,an 18 then we all know that the PTF’s were almost non existent they were grouping up on pse’s that weren’t guaranteed any hours and that way management could work as many hours as they wanted. I was a PSE for 3 years then when the agreement was finally starting to be enforced I was promoted to a PTF in April then forced to another office as the NTFT in July of 2014. All this because management couldn’t follow the rules.
this is unfair, I am getting the same settlement as someone who worked 1 day a week, and I worked 6 days a week. I am losing about $20,000. Wonder why people are dropping out of the union. I have been a union member for 30 years and I will be getting out when I can.
Possibly those who worked 1 day a week had no work available to them. The whole basis of the grievance was that PTF’s should be working , and not the PM doing their work. If you were working 6 days a week, then you were getting more hours than them. Bottom line, it was virtually impossible for them to calculate how many hours everyone worked the last 4 years. I’m a PTF too. In just happy I’m getting something!
I am an RCA now but was a pse and oic at a post office for approximately two years. Will there be any compensation for me? Thank you
If your job title was never PTF, or NFTT, then no. There is no compensation for RCA- that’s a different craft. PSE are not included, neither is OIC.
apwu national…….stop local apwu branches from allowing “make up overtime”in local agreements, this policy lets po mismanagement screw clerks……make it stop on a national level. it is a good agreement for po mismanagement, not for a union clerk who is intentionally skipped over and finds out about it later. paying for skipped over clerks would nip the po mismanagement screw over jobs in the bud. and why not? tired of the stupid unioin reps having pizza or chinese food with these mismanagers while we get screwed because po mismanagements wants to give their friends OT and you have to try and find out about it. enough of this crap!
Make up OT is not a local thing. Its in JCIM Q&A! Its part of the contract not negotiated locally. Knowledge is power.
Postal management will have all the labor contracts go to arbitration because management believes of zero money available! However, Postal management has the funds for limos, the executive only gym, and 56 million for labor contract violations! Fifty six million reasons to give out bonuses to deserving management!