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NALC/USPS Moratorium on all Route Inspections
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“United States Postal Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President Patrick R. Donahoe and the National Association of Letter Carriers president William H. Young, have announced that the parties have reached agreement to place a nationwide moratorium on all route inspections from April 3, 2004, through August 31, 2004. This moratorium will not include those route inspections that begin prior to April 3, 2004.

“In addition, the parties have agreed on a process to verify cased mail volume for a period of time beginning on April 5, 2004, where possible, but in all delivery units no later than April 12, and concluding on May 28, 2004. During this time frame, letter carriers will have an opportunity on a daily basis to agree upon the cased mail volume that is being recorded into the DOIS system. Any disputes regarding the amount of cased mail volume to be recorded will be resolved by a supervisor and a union representative designated by the local branch president. The union’s representative will be provided a copy of the DOIS worksheet with the cased mail volume totals for each route at the end of each workday.

“The national parties are continuing their discussions regarding a comprehensive approach to the issues related to delivery services and letter carriers as agreed to in our transformation memorandum.”
(signed) Patrick R. Donahoe (signed) William H. Young

UPDATES
Postal Employee Network- ©2004 DO NOT COPY

First transmittal letter 2 April 2004

April 2, 2004

MEMORANDUM

To: NALC National Officers
From: Gary H. Mullins, Vice President

Subject: Update on the NALC/USPS Moratorium on all Route Inspections

In an ongoing process to refine the moratorium implementation the parties at the Headquarters level have worked out the following points of agreement.

A. All instruction about how the moratorium is implemented in the field will be issued from the NALC and/or USPS Headquarters level. Local or Area parties (NALC or USPS), are not to make any changes to the Memo or instructions they have received from the headquarters level. NALC branches should report any deviations of the instructions to their National Business Agent's office. The NBA's office will then pass the information on t0 the NALC Headquarters.

B. NBA's must note that President Young has agreed that during this period of time there will be no minor route adjustments, no special inspections, and no route counts and inspections of any kind. Carriers who have qualified for special inspections under Section 271.g of the M39 will have those inspections dealt with in the fall. The parties have agreed that during this period no office assistance will be provided to the regular carriers working on their own route.

C. Since yesterday, we have also improved the procedure for letter carriers to agree upon their linear volume. Please note the updated points that will be in the NALC Bulletin.

Each letter carrier will be asked to agree upon his/her linear cased volume. If there is a dispute. between the letter carrier and management about the volume, the union representative will be called over to verify the linear volume. Only if the union representative and the carrier agree that the linear volume is wrong, will the mail be counted.

If local parties have an ongoing problem with cased volume verification, they are to advise their National Business Agent's office immediately.

Each day, local NALC representatives will be provided a copy of the DOIS worksheet for each route. It will be that representative's responsibility to verify that the totals are those that were agreed upon by the letter carrier or union representative in that unit.

Local branches should be sure to set up a filing system to store the verified data.

 President Young' s special message 

 

Second Transmittal Letter 9 APRIL 2004

 

Agreement on Route Inspection Moratorium and Cased Mail Verification
	Transmittal Letter 2 April 8, 2004
	This is the second in a series of transmittal letters relating to the April 1, 2004 agreement signed between the U.S. Postal Service and the National Association of Letter Carriers. To that end, the parties have agreed to use the attached form to this transmittal to accomplish daily verification of cased mail volume. This form will be used in place of the DOIS worksheet and will be provided to the union's representative on a daily basis. A copy of this form will be maintained by both union and management. As we have stated previously, the objective of this data collection is to ensure that there is an accurate and proper recording of cased mail volume. Throughout the first week of the verification process, both parties have received numerous questions regarding implementation. Below you will find responses to these questions that the parties have jointly agreed upon:
	Questions and Answers
	1. Is cased mail volume verified every day or only on days the route is served by the regular carrier?
	Response: A route's cased mail volume should be verified each day, whether the route is served by the regular, technician, or any replacement carrier.
	2. Are auxiliary routes included in the verification process?
	Response: Yes.
	3. Are offices not using DOIS included in the verification process?
	Response: Yes.
	4. Is S999 mail from the DPS included in the verification process?
	Response: Yes.
	5. Is cased mail that has been piece counted on automated equipment included in the verification process?
	Response: Yes. It will be listed separately on the form. Normally, letter carriers will be able to visually verify the accuracy of the automated piece count. Disputes will be handled in the same manner as with linear verification.
	6. For routes that have a router as a permanent adjustment, can the router continue to be used during the verification period?
	Response: Yes.
	7. Can office assistance be provided to regular carriers on their own route that have medical restrictions?
	Response: Only if casing the whole route would exceed the medical restrictions.
	8. Does the restriction of no office assistance apply when the regular carrier is not on the route?
	Response: No. The restriction does not apply to technicians or other replacements. It does, however, apply to the regular carrier working on their own route on a non-scheduled day.
	9. May supervisors conduct one-day efficiency office counts during the moratorium period?
	Response: No. The moratorium includes route counts of all types including one-day efficiency counts.
	10. May supervisors complete forms 3999 on the street?
	Response: No. The moratorium includes route counts of all types including 3999s.
	11. Has a procedure for resolving a supervisor-union representative verification dispute been addressed?
	Response: Local management should notify the district labor relations/operations contact who will resolve the process dispute with the NBA office.
	12. If the local parties have a minor route adjustment agreement pursuant to MRA memorandum, does the moratorium apply?
	Response: Yes.
	13. Can a count and inspection mandated by a grievance-arbitration decision or required by 271g be conducted during the moratorium period?
	Response: No. These types of inspections are suspended during this time and will be reviewed again in the Fall of 2004.
	14. Does the moratorium on inspections and adjustments apply to all types of routes?
	Response: Yes.
	15. Can a regular carrier be pivoted in the office when there is undertime on their own route during the verification period?
	Response: Yes.
	16. Who verifies the cased mail volume on a route that is pivoted?
	Response: The first carrier assigned to case after the mail is distributed.
	17. What operations number should the union representative be in while resolving disputes and/or counting mail?
	Response: Steward time on the clock
	18. Can those offices that have withheld positions in anticipation of excessing after route inspections and adjustments continue to withhold through August 31?
	Response: Yes.
	19. When the carrier and the supervisor agree on the cased volume, does the union representative also have to verify the count?
	Response: No.
	20. When the supervisor and the union representative cannot agree on the volume, will the two of them conduct a piece count?
	Response: They, or another agreed-to third party, will count the mail. The letter carrier assigned to the route does not count the mail.
	21. Should we record non-productive time spent counting the cased volume as ‘stand-by' time (Operations Number 354)?
	Response: No. The union representative counting the mail is on steward duty time.
	22. Is headquarters going to produce service talks on Moratorium issues?
	Response: We believe that these Q&As should provide sufficient information for the local parties, but we will consider jointly prepared service talks if the need arises.
	23. How do we respond to grievances filed on count verification activity?
	Response: See the response to Question 11.
	24. Do we need a written acknowledgment from the carrier agreeing to the count?
	Response: No.
	25. Can an acting supervisor count mail?
	Response: Yes.

Cased Volume Verification Form