LOCAL MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING
MYRTLE BEACH, SOUTH CAROLINA

NOVEMBER 21, 2006 — NOVEMBER 20, 2011

All parties agree to extend the Local Memorandum of Understanding entered into on

November 14, 2007, at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, 29577, between the representatives


of the United States Postal Service and Branch 4645 of the National Association of Letter Carriers (representatives thereof).











MEMORANDUM OF

UNDERSTANDING

between

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF LETTER CARRIERS, AFL-CIO
BRANCH 4645

US POSTAL SERVICE, MYRTLE BEACH, SC
2006-2011

ITEM 1
WASH-UP TIME

Installation heads shall grant reasonable wash-up time to those employees who perform dirty work or work with toxic materials. The amount of wash-up time granted each employee shall be subject to the grievance procedure.



ITEM 2

OFF DAYS

All regular letter carrier routes in the Myrtle Beach Installation shall be on a rotating day off schedule, with the work week running from Saturday through Friday. (Implementation date to begin January 2, 1991.)


ITEM 3

CURTAILMENT OF TERMINATION OF POSTAL OPERATIONS

The decision for the curtailment or termination of postal operations, as local conditions warrant because of emergency conditions, shall be made by the installation head. When a decision has been reached to curtail postal operations, to the greatest extent possible, management will notify and seek the cooperation of local radio and television stations to inform employees. Depending on the severity of the emergency situation and what is allowed by local authorities under such a situation, Postal Service telephones will be open for employees to call for information. Employees involved in the actual emergency situations will take immediate action to protect themselves and the mails. Under such circumstances, management will be advised as soon as possible. When foreseen, the installation head or his designee shall meet with the local union representative to discuss such factors as:


  1. The degree of emergency as stated by and acted upon by responsible governmental authorities.

  2. The degree of unsafe conditions resulting from such emergency as it relates to employees performing their duties.

  3. In the event of a mandatory evacuation, the installation head or designee will curtail or terminate postal operations in those affected areas.

  4. At least 24 hours in advance of a projected disaster, when possible e.g. hurricane, the installation head or designee will provide all letter carriers with an emergency contact number to call for information.

ITEM 4

CHOICE LEAVE SELECTION

A. Choice Leave Selection

Beginning December 15 and for the following seven (7) working days, the supervisor shall call employees by seniorty to sign up for choice leave selection.  One(1) week prior to Dember 15, the supervisor will notify all employees of the selection period. Upon being contacted by the supervisor each employee will have one (1) hour to make his/her selection. The supervisor will provide each employee with the needed P5 Form 3971 to enable employees to submit in duplicate, their choice collection. Upon receipt of PS Form 3971 in duplicate the supervisor will enter the selection in ink on the leave calendar, and return a copy of the PS Form 3971 to the employee indicating approval and signed by the supervisor. Any employee absent at his/her appropriate time will be contacted by the supervisor prior to that time and the supervisor will obtain three (3) choices for his/her selection in order of his/her preference. (NOT MORE THAN TWO PREFERENCE CHOICES WILL BE APPROVED.) This will be approved in order of that employee's choices, according to the availability at the scheduled time for his/her selection. Employees may make a selection by phone. Such phone requests or written choices shall be verified by the station steward. Following the completion of choice selection a completed calendar showing all selections will be posted in each station by December 31 of each calendar year.

  1. Duration of the Choice Vacation Period

The choice vacation period shall be January 1 through November 30.

  1. Leave Week

Monday through Saturday shall constitute a leave week.

  1. Employees Option of Two Selections During Choice Vacation

Carriers may make two (2) selections of choice vacation in units of either five (5) or ten (10) working days, the total not to exceed the ten (10) or fifteen (15) days, agreed at the National level.

  1. Determination of Employees on Choice Vacation at One Time

The number of carries to be granted choice vacation shall be determined by the factor of 14% of the total carrier work force, in each section, will be granted vacation leave. The total carrier workforce is defined as regular carriers and part-time flexible carriers. Also included in the total carrier workforce will be transitional letter carriers that are not replacing letter carriers on long term leave. If a fraction of .5 or more results, the next higher whole number shall be used. The 14% will include: Choice vacation and convention leave. Additional leave during the convention will be considered according to availability. Management shall post maximum number of carries allowed off each week, no later than December 5. This shall be done by determining the 14% and posting the number of carriers that can be off each week. This shall be posted on a clear and open spot.

1. Exchange of annual leave will not be permitted.

2. Leave for union conventions will be blocked off prior to choice vacation selection.

3. Cancellation of Leave:

  1. Leave must be cancelled at least one week prior to the posting of the duty schedule. If the leave is not cancelled one week prior to the posting of the duty schedule, the employee must take the approved leave.

  2. Leave cancelled 30 days or more in advance will be reposted for a period of five (5) business days and awarded by seniority. Leave that goes "unbid" will be considered as all other annual leave.

    Split carrier technician positions will be counted in the section where the majority of the group is located.


ITEM 5

ALL OTHER ANNUAL LEAVE

  1. All other annual leave shall be granted in increments of hours, days, and weeks, on a first come, first serve basis and then according to seniority.

  2. Request for all other annual leave on PS Form 3971 will be submitted in triplicate, prior to the positing of the schedule. The triplicate copy will be returned to the carrier with the supervisor's signature verifying only the date request was received. Requests made after the posting of the schedule will be considered according to the available help at the time of the request.

  3. Any annual leave request not approved or disapproved within 72 hours will be considered approved subject to the following. Three (3) days, 72 hours, should be sufficient time for management to respond. After 48 hours of submitting the leave request and no response has been received to approve or disapprove the request, a carrier must present his/her triplicate copy to the appropriate manager to verify the status of the request.

  1. No person shall have more than three (3) active other than choice leave requests (PS Form 3971) at any given time. Once a selection period has been used, another selection may be requested.


  1. The number of carries to be granted all other annual leave shall be determined by the factor of 12% of the total carrier work force. The total carrier workforce is defined as regular carriers and part-time flexible carriers. Also included in the total carrier workforce will be transitional letter carriers that are not replacing letter carriers on long term leave. If a fraction of .5 or more results, the next higher whole number shall be used. The number of carries to be granted all other annual leave the day prior to a holiday shall be determined by the factor of 10% of the total carrier work force.

  2. Beginning November 15, the supervisor will contact each employee in seniority order for a one time leave selection for the month of December. These applications will be for consecutive days not to exceed one (1) week. Other parts of LMU concerning the granting of annual leave will not apply for December leave.

  1. The month of December, Myrtle Beach Post Office will allow three (3) carriers to be off. Surfside Beach Branch Post Office and Live Oak Branch Post Office will allow one (1) carrier to be off at each office. All offices may allow more carriers to be off if possible.

  1. Cancellation of leave: Leave must be cancelled at least one week prior to the posting of the duty schedule. If the leave is not cancelled one week prior to the posting of the duty schedule, the employee must take the approved leave. The employee must complete PS Form 3971 to cancel leave at least one week prior to the posting of the duty schedule. The employee's name shall be immediately removed from the leave calendar.

  1. Split carrier technician positions will be counted in the section where the majority of the group is located.

ITEM 6

HOLIDAY SCHEDULING

Holiday scheduling pecking order will be completed in accordance with Article 11.6 of the National Agreement.


ITEM 8

LIGHT DUTY

  1. The number of light duty assignments within each craft or occupational group to be reserved for temporary or permanent light duty assignment.

  2. The method to be used in reserving light duty assignments so that no regularly assigned member of the regular work force will be adversely affected.

  3. The identification of assignments that are to be considered light duty within each craft represented in the Myrtle Beach Main Post Office as well as Surfside and Live Oak Stations.

Management will assign letter carriers to available light duty consistent with employee's limitations in accordance with Article XIII.

The Postmaster shall make every effort to employ Letter Carriers in their own station or branch for light duty assignments.

Identification of light duty assignments: it is agreed that light duty assignments within the stations and branches, for Letter Carriers, may include but not limited to:

  1. Assisting routes by setting up mail.

  2. Marking up forwardable mail.

  3. Relabeling Carrier cases.

  4. Rewriting Carrier route books.

  5. Coverage of suitable collection routes.

  6. Labeling inside of apartment/cluster boxes.

  7. Delivering Express Mail

  8. Training new employees when, in fact, training is done at the station level by a craft employee.

Definition of Light Duty Assignments: A light duty assignment is any assignment within the physical capabilities of an employee who is temporarily or permanently incapable of performing his/her normal duties as a result of illness or injury.


ITEM 10
PARKING

Where feasible, management will arrange parking for all government owned vehicles in such a manner so as to create additional parking places for employees.



ITEM 14

OVERTIME DESIRED LIST


    14.1 Overtime Desired list shall be posted by sections.  Sections are defined as individual delivery units.


ITEM 18

IDENTIFICATION OF SECTIONS

18.1 Sections are identified as individual delivery units as follows:

  1. Main Office

  2. Surfside Branch Office

  3. Live Oak Station


ITEMS 21 & 22

POSTING

  1. All vacant full time carrier assignments shall be posted for ten (10) working days.

  1. A Copy of all posted notices affecting the Letter Carrier craft will be sent to the secretary of Branch #4645.

  2. Job postings will be handled in accordance with Article 41.1 of the National Agreement. During the month of December, the successful bidder shall be awarded the position on the first full pay period in January.

  3. When a route of T-6 position is bid the rotating schedule for that route or T-6 is bid with the route.

  4. The successful bidder shall not have retreat rights to his/her prior assignment.

  5. Full time regular routes which are not in a full or completed T-6 group; shall be given a choice of rotation groups, by seniority, according to the available rotation groups within that T-6 group. Once the T-6 group is completed all carriers will maintain their rotation group.

  1. In the event of the splitting up of an existing T-6 group for the purpose of reassigning regular routes to another postal facility, any regular route which is not in a completed T-6 grouping shall be used to fill the vacancy in the existing T-6 groups. If an existing T-6 group must be used to fill vacancies, the T-6 group with the junior T-6 carrier will be used. Management will, if at all possible, arrange these routes in such a manner as to allow all carriers involved to maintain their previously awarded rotation schedule. If this cannot be done, the rotation schedules in the affected T-6 grouping shall be re-bid by seniority.

  1. The regular assigned carrier will be used on a daily basis to train a replacement unless otherwise agreed upon with the local union representative.

  2. All provisions of Article 41, Section 2.B shall apply to temporarily vacant full-time craft duty assignments of anticipated duration of five (5) days or more except the following:

a) One week prior to the temporary vacancy and for a period of three(3) days, the supervisor of the work location where the vacancy exists shall post a notice of the vacancy and receive bids only during the three day bid period. The senior bidder will be placed in the temporarily vacant assignment for the duration.

    b) All temporarily vacant full-time craft duty assignments that have an immediate vacancy because of accident, illness, or other special circumstances, the three (3) day bid period will be waived and the supervisor of that work location shall contact the senior employee with bid rights for that assignment by seniority. If no bidder accepts the assignment then the supervisor can assign the vacant assignment by juniority.

    J. (Article 41, Section 3, 0.) When a letter carrier route or full-time duty assignment, other than the letter carrier route(s) or full-time duty assignment(s) of the junior employee(s) is abolished at a delivery unit as a result of, but not limited to, route adjustments, highway, housing projects, all routes and full-time duty assignments at that unit held by letter carriers who are junior to the carrier(s) whose route(s) or full-time duty assignment(s) was abolished shall be posted for bid in accordance with posting procedures in this Article.