National Association of Letter Carriers

Memorandum of Understanding

between

The North Myrtle Beach Post Office

and

Local Branch #4645, N.A.L.C., AFL/CIO

November 1994


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 such time granted to each employee shall be subject to the Grievance/Arbitration procedure.


Item #2

OFF DAYS

All regular letter carrier routes in the North Myrtle Beach post office shall be on a rotating day off schedule, with the work week beginning on Saturday, and running through the next Friday.


Item #3

CURTAILMENT OR 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. Whenever possible, the installation head or his designee shall if possible, 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.


Item #4

CHOICE LEAVE

  1. CHOICE LEAVE SELECTION

Beginning December 15 and for the following seven (7) working days, the supervisor shall call employees, by seniority, to sign up for choice leave selection. One (1) week prior to December 15, the supervisor will notify all employees of the selection period. Upon being contacted by the supervisor, each employee will have 24 hours to make his/her selection. The supervisor will provide each employee with the needed PS forms 3971 to enable the employees to submit, in duplicate, their choice selection. 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 employees 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 carriers 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. 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 carriers 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.

Exchange of annual leave will not be permitted.


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 posting of the schedule. The triplicate copy will be returned to the carrier with the supervisor’s signature verifying only the date request was received. Request 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 Postmaster or the SPO to verify the status of the request.

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

  5. The number of carriers to be granted all other annual leave shall be determined by the factor of 14% of the total carrier work force. If a fraction of .5 or more results, the next higher whole number shall be used. The number of carriers 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.

  6. Beginning the day after Thanksgiving through November 30, applications will be accepted for annual leave for the month of December. These applications will be for consecutive days or a maximum of one (1) week. This leave will be granted by seniority, whenever possible. Other parts of LMU concerning the granting of annual leave will not apply during this period.


Item #6

HOLIDAY SCHEDULING

When scheduling letter carriers to work on a holiday, assignments will be made from volunteers by seniority. When arbitrarily assigned, assignments will be made by juniority among the carriers with the needed skills.


Item #7

OVERTIME DESIRED LISTS

An overtime desired list shall be posted on the bulletin board for the carrier craft and run in accordance with Article 8 of the National Agreement. The list will be posted at the beginning of each quarter. An announcement of the posting of the list will be made by the supervisor in charge the same day as its posting.


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 North Myrtle Beach post office.

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 be 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.

Identification 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 #9

SECTIONS

The North Myrtle Beach post office will be treated as a section for leave purposes, overtime desired lists and reassignments when it is proposed to reassign within an installation.


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.