President Ivan D. Butts, Executive Vice President Chuck Mulidore and Secretary/Treasurer Jimmy Warden attended the Nov. 23 Zoom consultative meeting. Representing the Postal Service were Bruce Nicholson, James Timmons, Paulita Wimbush and Tomica Duplessis, Labor Relations Policies & Programs.
Agenda Item #1
NAPS asked if the Postal Service would extend the annual leave carryover and annual leave exchange exceptions into leave year 2025 as in previous years. NAPS believes the Postal Service should extend both program exceptions as EAS employees continue to deal with employee shortages, including EAS vacancies, that impede EAS employees from taking annual leave.
This agenda item relates to pay and should be addressed during pay consultations, as outlined in Title 39 § 1004.
Following the consultative meeting, these changes were made permanent and implemented December 2023.
Agenda Item #2
NAPS asked for the Postal Service’s interpretation of the 120-Day Calendar Time Limit rule, specifically, applicability to postmaster vacancies as found in EL-312, sections 743.15 and 743.16.
The policy is as written and speaks for itself.
Agenda Item #3
NAPS asked how many 204(b) hours and code 35 hours the USPS used in Function 2 from June 2023 through October 2023.
F2 code 35 hours for the period requested—June, pay period 13, through October, pay period 23—were 1,820,664.
Total 204(b) Delivery Services hours for the period requested—June, pay period 13, through October, pay period 23—were 1,213,731
The 204(b) hours were reduced 14.34% from pay period 2023-08-1 through 2023-23-2 following the addition of the Supv Customer SVCS (Relief) positions.
Agenda Item #4
NAPS discussed that, for NPA, Level-18 postmasters have 60% control of their office scores, while every other level has 80% direct control. Looking at the weighted percentage applied to the righthand column items of any post office’s NPA scorecard, Level-18 postmasters are the only group that has the “Retention Rate” (a district score) set at 40%. NAPS asked why every other level is able to impact their NPA score by 80%.
Can NAPS better explain what they are requesting or referring to? Which year? The scorecard named “Employee Retention” was changed to “Employee Separation Rate” for 2023. NAPS was asked to provide the NPA scorecards to which this item is referencing so they can be examined.
Agenda Item #5
NAPS requested a briefing on the S&DC IOP scorecard—Power Bi Delivery Report. Based on the Carriers After DOV, Carriers After 1900, late trips and other indicators, the S&DC process does not appear to be operationally successful, efficient or service-oriented at this point.
Roxanne Hosein, manager, Post Office Operations and Delivery Integration, provided a briefing concerning this indicator.
Agenda Item #6
NAPS asked if vehicles can be made available to delivery units, allowing EAS employees to perform carrier street observations so front-line supervisors are not using their POV.
Delivery units may use any postal vehicle assigned to their office when available. The local Vehicle Maintenance Facility can be contacted to provide a pool vehicle, if available.
Agenda Item #7
Prior to POStPlan, Level-15-and-below postmasters had the opportunity to file other appealable actions in ELM 652. Now that these postmasters are Level-18, they have lost that opportunity. NAPS asked the USPS to change line 1 of ELM Subsection 652.41 from EAS-17 to EAS-18.
This policy applied to a limited number of postmaster positions in Levels-16 and below. During POStPlan implementation, postmasters who were incumbents in Level-15 positions either competed for higher-level promotions, likely to Level-18, or the position was eliminated. Level-18-and-above postmasters still can appeal disciplinary actions, including letters of warning and emergency placement. This request is not adopted. Concerns still can be discussed with the immediate manager.
Agenda Item #8
NAPS discussed that, due to the RRECS mini survey last March, PS Form 4003 (rural route pay adjustment document) was temporarily or permanently closed; no equivalent was provided. In areas of consistent growth, rural routes are not being adjusted and are overburdened without new routes being created. This process affects SWCs, as new EAS Level-17 positions are not being created, reflecting the growth in rural carrier positions. NAPS requested the process of adjusting overburdened rural routes begins as soon as possible.
Route adjustments (territorial adjustments of overburdened routes) never are made in November and December. The parties are currently in discussion on developing an adjustment worksheet used in the RRECS environment.
Agenda Item #9
NAPS believes the RCA credit under SWCs should be 1.0 credit per RCA instead of 0.4 for seasonal offices. RCAs often are working six days a week or 13 days biweekly due to slow and ineffective USPS hiring practices.
Supervisor workload credit is given for the number of employees managed, which is consistent with other ratios. When employee complement increases, supervisor workload credits increase. When employee complement decreases, supervisor activities of subordinates decreases; therefore the credits decrease.
The current credit is 1.25 for regular rural carriers and PTFs. For routes that have become vacant, the credit is continued for 60 days or while the route is in bidding. The SWCs program gives 0.40 credit for working RCAs and ARCs. There is not a differentiation between “seasonal” or “regular” offices.
Agenda Item #10
NAPS asserted that the triangulation report identifies National Deliverability Index (NDI) <65% (non-delivery initiative), meaning a route or routes were not delivered completely. This report is not 100% accurate and the CRDO team is assuming a postmaster’s office may not yet have had a route delivered in its entirety.
The NDI trigger(s) to this indicator needs to be reexamined because it provides false indicators when DOIS indicates a carrier on the route and the parcels were confirmed to be delivered. This NDI inaccuracy needs to be fixed.
NDI inaccuracies or technical issues should be reported to the NDI Support Team. The team makes updates from suggestions from the field, if needed:
Agenda Item #11
NAPS discussed that, in TACS, when any carrier (especially CCAs) does not have a regular route assigned when they clock in, TACS defaults to the last route they were on or not at all. This causes an automatic clock ring error. It happens with CCAs, carrier techs and reserve carriers.
NAPS requested this be fixed to allow all carriers other than the regular to enter the route number they are assigned on clocking in to avoid TACS clock ring errors occurring when someone other than the regular is on the route.
Mobile Delivery Devices (MDDs) and Electronic Badge Readers (EBRs) have the capability for operation and route numbers to be entered by all employees, including CCAs.
Agenda Item #12
NAPS asked for the current attrition and vacancy rates in DSS and POSS positions over the past two years on the CRDO team nationally.
We do not track attrition rates for individual positions. The vacancy rate for the DSS position for FY23 was 13.45%, a 2.91% reduction from FY22 at 16.36%. The vacancy rate for the POSS position for FY23 was 4.0%, a 5.59% reduction from FY22 at 9.59%.
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