From USPS News Link:

The Human Resources Shared Services Center (HRSSC) began processing Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) requests for employees of 23 districts and headquarters July 11. FMLA processing for all other districts nationwide will transition to HRSSC Sept. 10.

Employees who need general information regarding the Family and Medical Leave Act can click here. HRSCC staff also will be available for case-specific questions, Monday through Friday from 7:00 a.m. until 8:30 p.m. ET.

Supervisors and managers may email requests for FMLA information to the Outlook email address designated for each Area. Click here for the list, which includes detailed contact information of districts that were affected by the move of FMLA to HRSSC last month.

Until the transition is completed, employees who hand deliver their certifications to work locations within a district where FMLA processing has been transferred to HRSSC should be allowed to fax the information or be given an envelope to mail their information to HRSSC.

via USPS News Link – August 2, 2011.

From the National Association of Letter Carriers:

The debt ceiling and letter carriers: On Monday night, the House of Representatives approved a deal brokered by congressional leaders with White House negotiators to keep America from defaulting on its credit obligations. The agreement authorizes a two-stage, $2.1 trillion raise to the nation’s debt ceiling that’s balanced with about $2.5 trillion in spending cuts spread over the next decade. Postal employees’ pensions and health benefits are fortunately off-limits in this first round of cuts in discretionary spending, though we will have to defend the continuation of six-day delivery during the appropriations process. But a second round of cuts could expose our fringe benefits to reductions, depending on the outcome of negotiations within a bipartisan, House-Senate select committee—the so-called "Super Congress." The Senate is expected to approve the legislation, and the president is expected to sign it today.

via NALC | The National Association of Letter Carriers, AFL-CIO.

The Postal Regulatory Commission has announced its schedule for considering the Postal Service’s request for an advisory opinion on its plans to close as many as 3,650 post offices in the near future. Interested parties need to notify the PRC of their intention to intervene in the case by August 19. The first hearing to consider the USPS’s direct evidence is scheduled for September 8.

All interested persons are hereby notified that notices of intervention in this proceeding shall be due on or before August 19, 2011. Responses to discovery shall be due within 7 days.The hearing to receive the Postal Service’s direct case shall begin September 8, 2011.

Intervenor evidence must be submitted by September 16, 2011.

The hearing to receive intervenor evidence shall begin October 3, 2011.

Unless the Postal Service elects to submit surrebuttal evidence, briefs shall be due October 14, 2011, and reply briefs shall be due October 21, 2011.

If the Postal Service elects to submit surrebuttal evidence, that evidence is due by October 11, 2011.

The hearing to receive the surrebuttal evidence shall be October 17, 2011.

If surrebuttal evidence is submitted, briefs shall be due October 26, 2011, and reply briefs shall be due November 2, 2011.

Order_No_778

Senator says official’s compensation ‘not transparent’

Thursday, July 28, 2011

(U.S. SENATE) – U.S. Senator Jon Tester is demanding to know why the head of the U.S. Postal Service made $800,000 in total compensation while eliminating local Montana positions as the organization is dealing with a multibillion-dollar shortfall.

Tester, during a Senate hearing on the nominations of Mark Acton and Robert Taub to the Postal Regulatory Commission, said that the salaries of top executives should be at the top of the list when cutting costs.

“Quite frankly, when times are tough, when you start cinching your belt down, that ought to be the first place we’re looking, not the last place,” Tester said.

Tester, a member of the Senate Committee that oversees the Postal Service, added that this week’s decision to consider the closure of 85 rural post offices in Montana would “raise heck in Rural America.”

Tester told Acton that the Postal Regulatory Commission must play a big role in rural America with its recommendations to the Postal Service.

“I also understand you guys give recommendations, and I appreciate that,” Tester said. “And I think they ought to be listened to a heck of a lot more than they’ve been listened to, quite honestly. You guys have important jobs–an important connection–and quite frankly, from my constituency’s base, you guys are a big deal. Because you can make a difference.”

The Postal Regulatory Commission is an independent agency that has oversight over the Postal Service.

Tester recently wrote a letter to the Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe calling on the U.S. Postal Service to keep mail service available in rural communities.

From the APWU:

“The American Postal Workers Union will stand with our neighbors in demanding that post offices, stations, and branches remain open – and expand the services they offer – wherever they are needed,” APWU President Cliff Guffey said. The USPS announced July 26 that it plans to study 3,700 post offices, stations and branches for possible closure.

“Closing post offices and slashing service to the American people is not the answer to the Postal Service’s financial crisis,” Guffey said. “The USPS is well aware of the cause of its financial difficulties,” he added. “They cannot cut their way to fiscal health.”

“Congress created the crisis when it slapped the USPS with a $5.5 billion obligation that no other government agency or private company is forced to bear,” he said, referring to the requirement that the USPS pre-fund a 75-year retiree healthcare liability over a 10-year period.

“And Congress has refused – so far – to allow the USPS to apply billions of dollars in overpayments to its pension funds to the pre-funding requirement.”

“The federal government is forcing the Postal Service into bankruptcy by holding billions of dollars of USPS money,” Guffey added.

“Unfortunately, the USPS response is misguided. Closing post offices, stations, and branches will not save the Postal Service.”

The USPS plans to replace some of the offices with “Village Post Offices” – convenience stores that will sell stamps and flat-rate packaging – misses the mark, he said.

“In most cases, Village Post Offices will not be able to provide the American people with the service they expect and deserve,” Guffey said. “The so-called ‘Village Post Offices’ are just a warm and fuzzy name for privatizing the USPS.

Washington, DC – The Postal Regulatory Commission will immediately begin its review of the Postal Service’s plan to consider closing approximately 3,700 post offices. The Postal Service is required to ask the Commission for an Advisory Opinion on any change in nationwide service it proposes. An initial schedule for the Commission to decide this case (Docket N2011-1) will be issued shortly.

The Commission will hold public, on-the-record hearings to analyze and cross-examine the Postal Service’s proposal and supporting evidence. During the process, mail users and interested members of the public may offer supporting or opposing views, both informally and as part of more formal, technical presentations. The Commission will also solicit public comments through its website. The Service cannot implement the changes until 90 days after filing the request.

“The Advisory Opinion process is the opportunity for the public’s concerns over the process to be heard, and for the Postal Service to be given the direction it needs to continue to provide good service to the nation,” said PRC Chairman Ruth Goldway. “The Commission supports the Postal Service’s efforts to become more efficient, but with regard to post offices, significant changes must be done within the framework of the legal requirement to provide universal service.”

The public is invited to share their views via the Commission web site, www.prc.gov, by clicking the “contact PRC” tab to access a convenient online customer service form. To participate more formally in the process and to file documents to be included in the online public record, interested parties should click the “Filing Online” tab and follow the appropriate instructions.

072811_Commission to Review Postal Services Post Office Closings Plan_1948.pdf (application/pdf Object).

From the American postal Workers Union:

The Postal Service has provided the APWU with a list of the first 100 mail processing sites that will utilize Non-Traditional Full-Time (NTFT) duty assignments [PDF], as well as computer models showing proposed schedules for three of the sites: the Boston Processing and Distribution Center, the Central Mass P&DC, and the Delaware P&DC.

Officers of the locals that represent the three facilities reviewed the plans with Clerk Division officers and others on July 26, 2011, at the union’s national headquarters. “The local officers provided valuable input,” said Clerk Craft Director Rob Strunk. “We will discuss their concerns with postal management at a meeting later in the week.”

The Postal Service also is expected to provide the APWU with model schedules for the remaining 97 identified offices at the meeting. All 100 proposed mail processing NTFT models are set to be released to local management on or about Aug. 2.

Under the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, local management is required to meet with the local union and provide an opportunity to review the proposed schedules, as well as an opportunity to offer input, propose suggestions, and/or offer alternative schedules before any of the assignments can be posted for bid.

The computer models were developed by a private contractor and, while most of the schedules reflected either eight or 10 hours days, they will require significant adjustments in order to comply with the posting and bidding requirements in Article 37 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement and in each office’s Local Memorandum of Understanding, Strunk said.

A list of sites and models for Customer Services (frequently referred to as “matrices” or USPS Form 1994), have not yet been shared with the union, but are expected shortly. When they are provided, the union will share the information with affected locals.

Locals are encouraged to review all proposals carefully and to work with management to fulfill the requirement of Article 37.3.A.1 to “create desirable duty assignments from all available work hours for career employees to bid.”

If concerns or disputes about proposed NTFT schedules arise, they will be referred to the appropriate Clerk Craft National Business Agent for timely processing through the Alternative Dispute Resolution Process outlined in the Collective Bargaining Agreement.

First 100 NTFT Sites

WASHINGTON, July 26 — The United States Postal Service today announced a list of nearly 3,700 post offices it will consider for closure.

Senator Susan Collins, who is the Ranking Republican on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and who in February introduced postal reform legislation, issued the following statement:

"The fact is, maintaining our nation’s rural post offices costs the Postal Service less than one percent of its total budget and is not the cause of its financial crisis. While there are some areas where postal services could be consolidated or moved into a nearby retail store to ensure continued access, this simply is not an option in many rural and remote areas. For example, Matinicus Island is about 20 miles off the coast of Maine and receives mail five rather than six days a week and then only in good weather. Closing this post office or moving it into a large retail facility is simply not realistic.

"It is essential that the Postal Service solicit local input before deciding to close or consolidate a post office, and it must weigh the potential impact of any decision on the community as well as on its legal obligation to provide universal service."

Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe and members of the Postal Headquarters leadership team updated leaders of NAPUS, League of Postmasters, and NAPS on the financial condition of the Postal Service today. The overall financial picture of the USPS remains bleak, as First-Class mail volume continues to decline, with a current net loss of $5.6 Billion, and a year-end projected loss of $9 Billion.

Following the financial briefing, presidents of the three postal management associations requested time to discuss the impact on Postmasters and other supervisory personnel who may be impacted by the recently announced discontinuance study of more than 3,500 postal facilities. NAPUS President Bob Rapoza asked if impacted Postmasters would face layoffs and he was told that while the possibility of some layoffs may exist, the Postal Service has an obligation to provide the same protection for all employees and they would do everything possible to find landing spots for Postmasters.

Postal leaders committed to consider RIF Avoidance and Voluntary Early Outs (VER) as part of the process to reduce the need for layoffs. USPS Headquarters officials said they were committed to maintaining a good working relationship with the management organizations and would include them throughout the process.

Postmasters whose offices are on the Discontinuance Feasibility Study list are reminded that the current procedures could require several months before a post office could actually be closed. The Postal Service has introduced proposed revisions to the Discontinuance timelines which would allow the closing of a facility within 138 days, but that recommendation is not yet effective.

Postmasters who may be impacted by the Discontinuance Feasibility Study should remember that some of the offices on the review list may not be closed. Impacted Postmasters are encouraged to check the NAPUS website for updates on what will happen if their office is scheduled to be closed.

Charlie Moser

July 27, 2011

via NAPUS.

The US Postal Service yesterday released a rather sparse financial report (a single PowerPoint slide) showing that its fiscal year 2011 loss now stands at $5.6 billion with three months to go.

Postal operations account for $1 billion of the total loss. The remaining $4.6 billion is due to trust fund and accounting mandates imposed by the 2006 PAEA law. Since 2006 Congress has demanded $5.5 billion from the USPS annually for a so-called trust fund to finance health benefits for future postal retirees. As mail volume declines, the Congressional mandate forces the USPS to borrow money from the Treasury that it then loans back to the Treasury. (More creative accounting from the folks who brought you the “debt ceiling”!)