Are you going to be excessed to another city?

by Jeff Lee 3rd Vice President

Our National Business Agent Manny Peralta recently received notification from the Postal Service that nine letter carriers from Newport Beach will be excessed to other installations because the employer is alleging they have too many letter carriers within the city. The purpose of this article is not debate whether Newport Beach is contractually correct to excess the Newport Beach letter carriers, but to educate you on the contractual provisions regarding withholding and excessing.

The reality is that due to the current recession and upside down economy, mail volume has dropped. This drop in mail volume has lead to a reduction in routes. Over the past few years I’m sure you have seen routes in your office go up for bid with no successful bidder and the employer decides to withhold the route instead of assigning it to the senior PTF. There is a contractual provision that requires the employer to withhold a position if, in the near future, there is going to be a reduction of routes in the city. This provision is to ensure the least amount of disruption to letter carriers in the event that routes are abolished and there are too many carriers for the assignments available in an installation; triggering the excessing of employees to other installations.

Actually, the withholding provisions and excessing provisions bargained in our contract are to the benefit to the Letter Carrier. They are protection to ensure job security. In the private sector, if there are too many employees in a company, they lay off employees. We can’t turn on the news or open the paper and not hear about some company going out of business or laying employees off in order to survive. In the Postal World, things are a little bit different. In our contract, there is a provision that protects letter carriers from layoffs if they have completed six years of continuous service and have worked in at least 20 pay periods during each of the six years.

The withholding provision protects letter carriers in your installation from the likelihood of being excessed to other installations due to route reductions. On the flip side, withholding also protects letter carriers from other installations or members from other crafts from being laid off in the event there are too many employees. Letter Carriers from other installations or other craft members can be placed into a withheld position in your installation. So, to answer the question are you going to be excessed to another installation? Well, I can’t say for certain, but with the reduction in mail volume and routes it certainly is a possibility. Just remember, excessed employees retain their full-time status.

You may recently have seen clerks come into your installation as a fulltime regular. I have been asked on several occasions why is the Union letting the clerks bump our PTFs? Why aren’t the clerks coming over as PTFs? There is a provision in the contract that states if an employee is involuntarily excessed to another installation or craft they retain their full-time status, however they do begin a new period of seniority. Although the withholding provision in the contract delays the PTFs from being made regular, and the excessing provision allows a person to be moved to another installation that may be farther from their home or farther away from a friend, at the end of the day, without a withholding provision or excessing provision in our contract, there would not be the provision that protects employees from layoffs after 6 years of service.

I have been a letter carrier for 19 years now. With all the sad news stories of people being laid off and/or losing their homes due to the economy, it really is a great feeling to know that I have a job where I know I won’t be laid off. I thank the leaders of the NALC that bargained these job security provisions and the leaders throughout the years that have fought to keep these provisions in our National Agreement.