From: Lamont Brooks <lbrooks@apwu.org>
Date: February 7, 2023 at 3:24:47 PM CST
Subject: FW: [EXTERNAL] Re: UNIFORM ALLOWNCE CARRY OVER and Fundamental Fairness

Please disseminate to the field.

Lamont A. Brooks
Director
Clerk Division
American Postal Workers Union, AFL-CIO

From: Richardson, Shannon R – Washington, DC <Shannon.R.Richardson@usps.gov>
Sent: Friday, October 21, 2022 6:43 AM
Subject: RE: [EXTERNAL] Re: UNIFORM ALLOWNCE CARRY OVER and Fundamental Fairness

Lamont,

When the MOU was negotiated the parties had many meetings on the feasibility of even being able to capture the carryover amounts and the complicated programming that it would entail, which is why we agreed that it could take up to a year to get the programming finalized. I’m sorry you feel like it should have/could have been done sooner, but that’s just not the case. We are within the parameters set by the agreement the parties made.

Additionally, the waiting time to have access to the rollover funds was also a complicated conversation and negotiation. Both parties understood the necessity for the rollover amount to not be accessible until the following anniversary date due to the invoicing/reconciliation process that occurs in the months after a uniform anniversary. The intent of the parties was to provide employees access to unused uniform allowance funds and that is what will be occurring.

Thanks,

Shannon Richardson
Director
Headquarters APWU Contract Administration
Office: 202-268-5842
Mobile: 202-607-5628

From: Lamont Brooks <lbrooks@apwu.org>
Sent: Thursday, October 20, 2022 3:24 PM
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: UNIFORM ALLOWNCE CARRY OVER and Fundamental Fairness

Where is the fairness to this position and clearly could not be the intent of the parties?

I asked about the January and February dates that pre-dated February 28, 2022 effective date of the CBA for the following reasons.

Those employees with uniform allowances from January 1-February 27, who are senior to the post February 28th date, would not be entitled to the carry over until 2025 while the junior employees who were issued a allowance on/after February 28th date would be entitled to the carryover in 2024.

Surely that was not the intent of the parties.

At the very least it should be effective January 1st out of fundamental fairness and should be easy to implement.

This way the explanation is calendar year.

The language states it should be implemented NO LATER than 12 months after the effective date of the Agreement.

This could have been implemented effective January 1st to avoid this anomaly.

Lamont Brooks
Director
Clerk Division

On Oct 20, 2022, at 1:38 PM, Reeder, Judith E – Washington, DC <judith.e.reeder@usps.gov> wrote:

Lamont, The Uniform Allowance Program will implement system updates effective February 28, 2023, to allow for the capability to capture and apply rollover funds per the agreement. Please see below the following examples of rollover based on upcoming anniversary dates:

February 1, 2023 – Any unused balance will rollover on February 1, 2025 (The time starts 12 months after the effective date of February 28, 2023)
January 31, 2024 – Any unused balance will rollover on January 31, 2025
January 1, 2023 – Any unused balance will rollover on January 1, 2025
April 15, 2023 – Any unused balance will rollover on April 15, 2024

Again, time was given to implement the system updates.

Judith E. Reeder | Labor Relation Specialist | Contract Administration (APWU) | U. S. Postal Service | Headquarters
475 L’Enfant Plaza SW |Washington, DC 20260-4101| (: 202.268.3577 | cell phone: 301.956.4357 |fax: 202.268.6946 | judith.e.reeder@usps.gov|