NRLCA Files National Level Grievance on Interim Adjustments

The NRLCA has been in discussions with the Postal Service to increase route evaluations based on growth between Mini Mail Surveys (MMS), per the contractual provisions in Article 9.2.C.10.

Postal Headquarters presented your National Board with the worksheet approximately 7 months ago. The National Board, and several specialized teams, reviewed and vetted the Interim Adjustment Worksheet and approved it. Management has yet to start using it in the field and rural carriers will no longer wait for management to make the decision to pay carriers for the growth between evaluations.

The text of the Step 4 appears below:

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Pursuant to Article 15, Section 4(D) of the parties National Agreement, the NRLCA submits this National-level grievance.

In dispute is the Postal Service’s continued failure to address compensation for interim adjustments after the implementation of the Rural Route Evaluated Compensation System (“RRECS”). Specifically, at all times after the implementation of RRECS, the Postal Service has not applied the interim adjustment language in Article 9.2.C.10 of the NRLCA National Agreement.

Article 9.2.C.10 states:

“When substantial service changes occur, an increase or decrease of one (1) full hour (60 minutes) in the evaluation of a rural route’s hours as determined by the formula in this paragraph, which indicate possible   eligibility for, or adjustment of evaluated compensation, the Employer shall promptly adjust the route evaluation and shall make a prompt adjustment in the compensation. Such interim adjustment shall be made by application of a formula based upon (1) the appropriate box allowance added to the volume factor multiplied by the boxes added to or subtracted from the route since the last evaluation and (2) the change in miles multiplied by the appropriate factor.”

The NRLCA has repeatedly pressed the Postal Service to plan for and carry out interim adjustments consistent with the contractual mandate in Article 9.2.C.10. The Postal Service’s repeated refrain from its Manager, Contract Administrator has been “we are working on it.”

After the second Mini Mail Survey and the subsequent route evaluation changes, we learned that while new boxes were credited to individual routes, no retroactive compensation was provided to rural carriers whose routes were entitled to an interim adjustment.

It is the position of the NRLCA that the Postal Service, as the employer, should not have implemented a new compensation system unless and until there was a plan to comply with the interim evaluation language of the National Agreement, which was not affected by the implementation of RRECS. The Postal Service’s failure to ensure the continuation of interim adjustments, which are designed to promptly and accurately compensate rural carriers for the work they perform is in violation of a variety of contractual provisions and other precedent, including but not limited to Articles 5, 9, 19 of the National Agreement; PO-603, 541; M-38, 217; and Federal Labor Law, including but not limited to Sections 8 (a) (1) and (5) of the National Labor Relations Act.

The Association’s remedial request includes, but is not limited to (1) a requirement that the Postal Service immediately comply with the interim adjustment language in Article 9.2.C.10 of the NRLCA National Agreement on all qualifying routes; (2) provide make whole retroactive relief for all affected carriers who were not afforded a timely interim adjustment based on deliveries added from the official implementation of RRECS to the present, and (3) interest at the Federal Judgment Rate.

Please contact Director of Labor Relations Bridget Boseak at your earliest convenience to discuss this important issue.

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