The Postal Service has announced that it has signed
memorandums of understanding with two unions addressing
employee reassignment and other work issues relating to
Hurricane Katrina.
The agreements with the American Postal Workers Union and
the National Postal Mail Handlers Union include guidelines
on postal workers seeking employment in new locations, USPS
said.
It said both agreements, which differ slightly, include
provisions treating employees who are allowed to work
where they have relocated as employees on voluntary
temporary reassignment, and allow employees to be employed
in any location as needed to maintain work efficiency.
“This agreement is the first of its kind,” APWU President
William Burrus said, adding, “we have no prior experience
trying to relocate thousands of employees” and that “it was
quite a challenge.”
Other shared provisions would give employees an opportunity
to seek permanent voluntary transfer to other locations,
grant them a liberal leave policy, and define an affected
employee as a regular work force employee in a craft
represented by the union whose official duty station on
September 2, 2005, was in an office that curtailed all
operations due to Hurricane Katrina, according to USPS.
The MOU will assist affected employees, while preserving
their rights to the grievance-arbitration procedure on
such issues as administrative leave, reassignment outside
the normal commuting area, involuntary reassignments, and
other matters, wrote NPMHU President John F. Hegarty.
