Mail Count—But First Sick Leave

The last day of mail count is finally over my shoulder. More about that in another post. First,

On Friday, March 13, 2009, Ralph Smith, CEO of FedSmith, Inc., a newsletter concerning issues of Federal Employees, wrote an article entitled, “Tobacco, the Thrift Savings Plan and FERS: What Is the Link Between Them?”

In this article, he wrote that HR 1256 was reintroduced on March 3rd with 143 co-sponsors. The bill entitled “Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act” has Title IV Sec. 407 stuck on the very end. Title IV has wording about changes to the Thrift Savings Plan. Sec. 407 specifically addresses unused sick leave.

This is quoting Ralph Smith:

“First, the credit for unused sick leave. Similar legislation was passed by the House last year but it was never enacted into law. The language in the new bill is similar. The language in the current bill reads:

"...in computing an annuity under this subchapter, the total service of an employee who retires on an immediate annuity or who dies leaving a survivor or survivors entitled to annuity includes the days of unused sick leave to his credit under a formal leave system, except that these days will not be counted in determining average pay or annuity eligibility under this subchapter."

In plain English, this means that federal employees who are under the FERS system would count their unused sick leave toward the computation of their retirement annuity in the same manner as employees under the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS).”

This is extremely important legislation for someone like me who has a full year of sick leave and retirement plans.

Holiday overtime

Saturday is the beginning of holiday pay.

Overtime is not allowed in our office. We are fine with that. Help is welcome. It gives the RCAs a little extra Holiday money.

Lack of opportunity for extra pay is not my complaint. Rather it is the scrutiny of letter and flat mail verses time on the route. This is the conversation. “The mail is light today, you should get back under your evaluation.” No mention of parcels.

For this reason, I am writing the number of dismounts I have each day in the comments section of the 4240, time sheet during the Holiday season. This would include large packages, accountable mail, and hardships.

Here is an example of how this affected my route. Monday, the mail was fairly normal but there were loads of packages, many too large for the box. Tuesday, we had essentially the same amount of mail but far fewer packages. I finished the route exactly one hour earlier Tuesday.

At least I will have some documentation for daily delivery time verses volume of mail.

Monster Cookies

We just completed a sharp Rural Carrier Academy class. They were first rate particpants and will make excellent rural carriers. I made Monster cookies and promised to post the recipe here. Warning: this recipe will make a tub of cookies--post office tub that is!

Monster Cookies
12 eggs
2 lbs brown sugar
4 cups white sugar
1 T. vanilla
1 T. syrup
8 teaspoons soda
1 lb. butter
3lbs. peanut butter (crunchy)
18 cups oatmeal
1 lb. chocolate chips
1 lb M & Ms
Note: I add about three cups flour. You might want to experiment with this a little.

Mix in order given in large dish pan. Bake 350 7 to 10 minutes for a medium size cookie or longer for a ice cream scoop size cookie.

QWL/EI is Discontinued

In a letter dated November 17, 2008, to the Vice Presidents, Area Operations, Doug A. Tulino, Vice President, Labor Relations, stated the following:

Don Cantriel, President, National Rural Letter Carriers' Association (NRLCA) informed me on Friday, November 14, 2008, that the NRLCA is withdrawing from the Quality of Work Life/Employee Involvement (QWL/EI) process effective January 1,2009.

Effective immediately, all QWL/EI training will be discontinued. Any on-going project or activity will have to be completed no later than December 31, 2008 as a result of the NRLCA's decision to terminate their participation in the QWL/EI process.

There are a few activities that currently require District Joint Steering Committee involvement (e.g. selection of rural carrier academy instructors and monitoring implementation of DPS letters). We are discussing the transition of these responsibilities and will be providing information in the near future.

While I am disappointed in the NRLCA's decision, I hope the experience of QWL/EI for the past 26 years has created a positive working environment among managers and rural carriers that will continue in the future.

QWL/EI has been an important part of my postal career. I have participated in district training, Rural Carrier Academy as well as a facilitator.

In Kansas, the QWL problem-solving techniques of bringing all parties together, applying sequential steps to a solution, and finally reaching a consensus were never fully utilized as far as workplace disagreements between management and craft. Work teams concentrated on "projects" that rarely were approved and most rural carriers did not know about nor cared. The DJSC published a bulletin that was informative and widely read. It will be missed.

I learned a great deal from my participation. It benefitted me personally even if deemed not to be helpful to rural carriers as a whole.

Latest Update on Sick Leave Retirement Credit Bill

The following is from the NAPUS (National Association of Postmasters of the United States) bulletin:

FERS Sick Leave Credit

Earlier this week, Sen. Cornyn, the Senate sponsor of the Senate companion to HR 1108, legislation to give the Food and Drug Administration regulatory authority of the tobacco products, indicated that the Senate is unlikely to take up the measure this year. HR 1108 includes a provision, authored by House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chair Henry Waxman (D-CA) that provides FERS retirement credit for unused sick leave. The House passed its version of the bill on July 30 by a 326-102 margin. The September 10 issue of CQ Today reported that when Sen. Cornyn was asked about whether the Senate would take up H.R. 1108, he answered, “Realistically, I don’t think so.” According to Senate leadership staff, the crowded end-session legislative calendar renders consideration highly doubtful.

Poll on Eliminating Saturday Delivery

The Lawrence Journal World posted the following question on their on line poll today: "Would you miss receiving mail on Saturdays if the United States Postal Service eliminated delivery that day?"

Click here for the results and comments.

As usual, the people who take the time to comment were negative. However, there were several positive posts. Be sure to find the post written by a former RCA. Unfortunately, I do not agree with her that eliminating Saturday delivery will not affect rural carriers not to mention the RCAs.

It is also interesting that a whopping 875 people responded. I follow these polls and this is significant. It appears the feeling is nearly 50/50 for or against. Personally, I thought there would be a stronger feeling for keeping the six day delivery. For those not familiar with this part of Kansas, Lawrence is in middle of the Kansas City to Topeka corridor. People in the central and western part of the state would be much less willing to give up Saturday delivery.

Mail count over my shoulder

There is an interesting happening in our office; one that really has nothing to do with mail count other than the time of year we are required to conduct it.

The news tells us the housing market is drastically down. However, in our little office, the three and a half routes have grown at least four or more boxes each since count ended. For two of us, had we had those boxes, our routes would have evaluated a step higher.

It seems not only is the February count a bad time for mail volume, but it is a time when no one is changing or moving. Spring comes, everything comes alive, people move into vacant rentals, existing homes sell and new homes break ground.

Too bad we lost that October mail count.