More NTFT Questions and Answers on the Contract
By Clint Burelson, President of the Olympia Washington Local
Many employees are concerned as to how the NTFT jobs will affect current workers. The first set of questions and answers showed:
1) Any clerk craft employee can have their bid job taken away and converted to NTFT (implied throughout and on page 190 of corrected tentative agreement)
2) Up to 50% of current workers holding bids in mail processing could have their jobs taken away and converted to NTFT jobs. (page 189 of corrected tentative agreement)
3) Up to 100% of workers holding bids in station/retail bids could have their jobs taken away and converted to NTFT jobs. (page 189 of corrected tentative agreement)
Here are some more common questions and answers regarding the impact of NTFT jobs on current workers.
Question: If my job is taken away from and converted to a NTFT assignment, I heard that I could be assigned a NTFT job that has a schedule of Sunday and Tuesday off, work 6 hours on Monday, 6 hours on Wednesday, 8 hours on Thursday, 10 hours on Friday, and 10 hours on Saturday. Is this true?
Answer: Yes. However, in terms of days off, although the provision below does not actually require it, you may be able to keep consecutive days off. There are many unanswered questions at this point. The relevant provision that allows the Postal Service to assign to you this erratic schedule states:
“No Clerk or MVS employee who at the signing of this Agreement, has a full-time regular work schedule of 40 hours a week will be involuntarily reassigned to occupy a NTFT duty assignment of less than 40 hours a week. However, such employees may be reassigned to occupy a NTFT duty assignments of 40-44 hours a week, so long as those assignments have at least two (2) scheduled off days, with no scheduled work days of less than six (6) hours or more than ten (10) hours.” (page 188 of corrected tentative agreement)
Question: I am a full-time worker on the ODL. If I am involuntarily assigned the NTFT job above that is scheduled for 10 hours for two of the days, will I get paid overtime for the two hours that are over 8 each day?
Answer: No. The new contract gives up some key overtime rights. If your regular schedule is for 10 hours in a day, you do not receive overtime for that day unless you work over 10 hours. If ratified by the membership, the contract will state:
“If these employee’s normal schedule is longer than eight (8) hours on any day, they will receive postal overtime only when they exceed their normal schedule for that day. (For example, an employee’s normal schedule is ten (10) hours on a given day but the employee works eleven (11) hours on that day. Only the last hour would be subject to postal overtime.)” (page 191 of corrected tentative agreement)
Question: I am a full-time worker on the ODL. If I bid on a job that is scheduled for 6 days a week and 6 hours a day, will I get built in overtime every week for working 6 days?
Answer: No. As stated earlier, the new contract gives up important overtime protections. If your scheduled assignment is for 6 days of work and the total scheduled hours for the week is less than 40, you will get no overtime for working your schedule of 6 days a week. This is implied in general, but addressed most directly below:
“These NTFT employees will normally work the number of hours (daily and/or weekly) identified in their bid assignment, except in an emergency. These employees are entitled to out of schedule premium for hours worked outside their normal schedule.” (page 190 of corrected tentative agreement)
Question: I am concerned that management will convert the senior employee in my section to an NTFT job. Does that mean that my job will get reposted too?
Answer: Yes. You and everyone else in the same section as the senior employee whose job is converted to NTFT will have their duty assignments reposted for in-section bidding. Existing in-section bidding rules would then apply. If the membership ratifies the contract, the following rule will apply:
“When an occupied traditional clerk FTR duty assignment is reposted as a nontraditional full-time assignment, all duty assignments in that section or station/branch currently occupied by employees junior to the incumbent in that assignment will also be reposted for in-section bidding.” (page 190 of corrected tentative agreement)
Question: How do you know what the section is for in-section bidding?
Answer: The section is defined at the local level. Look at Item 18 of your Local Memorandum of Understanding (LMOU) for that answer, which will be very important if this contract passes. The current Article 30, which will not change, describes Item 18 as:
“The identification of assignments comprising a section, when it is proposed to reassign within an installation employees excess to the needs of a section.” (page 144 of current CBA)
Question: I understand that the proposed contract allows for 50% NTFT clerk jobs in mail processing and 100% at the stations. However, NTFT jobs are very similar to part-time regular jobs. I thought we had lower limits on the amount of part-time regular jobs in the Post Office?
Answer: You are correct. The current contract limits part-time regulars to “2.5% of the career employees covered by this agreement.” (page 24 of current CBA). However, if the proposed new contract is ratified, the percentage of part-time regular/NTFT jobs could increase dramatically to 50% in mail processing and possibly 100% in the stations for the Clerk Craft alone. MVS will increase up to 10%.
Please correct me if any information above is inaccurate. Everyone should fully understand the changes in the new contract before voting for their future and the future of others.