USPS – NPMHU Contract Interpretation Manual
1. To the extent provided by law, court leave, certain time spent in military service covered by Chapter 43 of Title 38, or time spent on continuation of pay (COP), leave without pay (LWOP) or on the OWCP rolls because of compensable injury on duty; 2. Time spent on paid annual leave or sick leave; 3. Time spent on leave without pay (LWOP) for performing Union business as provided for in Article 24 of the Agreement, and 4. Temporary details outside of the regular work force in which the employee’s position of record remains in the regular work force. The parties do not currently agree upon the extent to which time spent on unpaid leave covered by the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is considered “work” for the purpose of this six-year requirement. In 1972, a grievance was advanced to Step 4 by the American Postal Workers Union regarding the non-scheduling of some part-time flexible employees at San Francisco, CA beginning in December, 1971. No meeting was held at the national level, but a decision was made to accept the validity of the grievance. Management’s decision as to disposition was as follows: “Though the contract does not specify a minimum amount of scheduled time for part-time flexible employees, in order to meet the intent of Article VI, these employees are to be scheduled for a least four (4) hours per pay period. Consequently, 239 employees will be given 4 hours pay for any period they did not work after December 30, 1971, and must be scheduled for a minimum of 4 hours each pay period in the future.” A copy of the above disposition was sent to all Regional Employee Relations Directors by cover letter dated February 14, 1972. They were instructed that should similar grievances arise in their region, the matter should be handled in this manner. For clarification, the part-time flexible employees were paid four (4) hours for each pay period in which they were not scheduled to work because the San Francisco, CA Post Office has more than 200 man years of employment. In offices with less than 200 man years of employment, part-time flexible employees are entitled to two (2) hours each pay period. See Article 8 (Section 8.8). In a 1974 policy letter , Brian J. Gillespie, Director, Office of Programs and Policies provided the following position to Emmet Andrews, President, APWU concerning a guarantee of two (2) or four (4) hours pay for part-time flexible employees who were not scheduled to work any hours during a pay period:
Version 3 – March 2011
Article 6 – Page 8