Questions You Didn't Know to Ask

Access

How to Setup LiteBlue

In order to view and access your employee documents including:

• Career or Craft Changing
• Job Bidding
• Payroll
• Tax documents

An employee needs to setup online access to LiteBlue. The first step in setting up an account is to setup a SSP or Self-Service Profile. You will need to have your EIN or Employee Identification Number which looks something like 06550872. If you have a time card the EIN will be on this card.

Further walk through SSP Further walk through LiteBlue Setup

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How to Setup Direct Deposit

From the LiteBlue main page navigate to PostalEASE. Enter your credentials. Select Allotments/Net To Bank Payroll on the upper left. There will be a disclaimer page, choose Continue, as Main Menu takes you back to the previous page. Net to Bank is postal terminology for direct deposit.

If you need to split up your paycheck into other accounts choose Allotments. Allotments is useful if you have a car payment or budget your money. Note if you use Allotments your NetPay in your paystub does not reflect your total Netpay, but rather the NetPay in the primary direct deposit account entered into Net to Bank. You may view these Allotment NetPay(s) under the deductions section of your paystub.

Please Note: If you are a part-time employee, MHA, PSE, CCA, RCA, etc., you must update the Net to Bank after each break in service or craft change. In these instances the employee is technically no longer employed by USPS during the break in service or craft change and must start off as a new employee though most of your LiteBlue data will follow through to the next stage of your employment.

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How to Setup TSP

The federal government's terminology for the career employee's retirement fund is the TSP or Thrift Savings Plan. In LiteBlue navigate to PostalEASE. Enter your credentials and then choose Continue from the disclaimer page. The following page allows you to adjust the percentage of your pay that gets contributed to your TSP. By default when you become a career employee the government sets the contribution at 5%. If you want to setup additional retirement accounts such as IRA, both traditional and Roth are availble the option will show on this page. The government also contributes to your TSP each payroll if you contribute at least 5%. If you update any settings choose Validate to submit the changes. A ticket page will generate showing when the update changes will go into effect.

LiteBlue provides an education page on TSP Benefits and since TSP is a non-Agency specific federal retirement program and it is accessible independent of LiteBlue. The independent page is where you setup planning for retirement and how you want your TSP funds invested until you retire.

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How to Access W2

From within LiteBlue navigate to PostalEASE. Enter your credentials. On the disclaimer page choose Continue. Choose the appropriate year to view that W2.

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Time

Time Keeping

Postal time is a clock divided into hundredths. Each click is thirty-six seconds. If you clocked-out at .83 the time is 50 minutes. if you plan to clock out at ten after the clicks would be .17. To calculate the time for clicks take the time divided by sixty. To find the minutes take the clicks and multiply by sixty.

Examples:
For Minutes	For Clicks
.23 x 60 = 14 minutes	33 ÷ 60 = .55
.45 x 60 = 27 minutes	53 ÷ 60 = .88

Leave

Incidental Leave

AWOL

LWOP

Early Out

Sick Leave

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AL Annual Leave

AL Bidding

Past Bidding AL

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Early to Shift

Unlike traditional private sector employment if a career bid job employee reports to the job early this doesn't mean the employee can then clock out after eight hours of work. An example would be an employee clocked-in two hours early and then clocked-out two hours prior to their shift ending. As a bid job employee the employee as agreed to work the bid job scheduled hours. The two hours early fall outside of the bid job schedule and are overtime. When the employee clocks-out two hours early the time keeping system flags the employee's time and a supervisor will mark the time as LWOP or Leave without Pay. If an employee generates more than eighty hours of LWOP the LWOP deducts any saved or generated AL or annual leave. LWOP must be paid back before an employee can retire. Again the bid job employee has agreed to work the scheduled time and LWOP cheats the Postal Service of the agreed time. Some employees clock-out a few clicks or a few minutes before the end of the bid shift. In this instance though incidental it is ultimately up to the supervisor if they choose to penalize the employee with LWOP for clocking-out early.

Late to Shift

An employee who arrives late should inform their supervisor that they have arrived late to avoid being marked as AWOL or Absent Without Leave. Depending on the supervisor and if the employee is a repeat offender the supervisor may still penalize the employee. The Postal Service allows up to eight clicks or five minutes of tartiness without generating an AWOL mark.

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Over Time

Are You Required to Stay

204b Supervisors

204b Supervisors are not exempt from overtime calls. If mandatory overtime has been called for a specific craft then the 204b of the same craft and tour is also required to observe the overtime.

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When Must Over Time Be Called

The latest overtime must be called is five minutes before the end of the shift. Despite the belief that overtime must be called two hours or a some other arbitrary number this is not true. The reason overtime must be called five minutes prior to the end of the shift is the contractual five minute paid wash-up. This five minutes belongs exclusively to the employee. The APWU's clerk contract has a provision requiring that overtime be called at least an hour and a half prior to the shift's last fifteen minute break period.

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ODL

The ODL or Overtime Desired List is a list of all employees on a tour that would like to work overtime if it is called. The signup sheets for the ODL are usually posted two weeks prior to the start of the next quarter. The ODL follows the employee until they sign themselves off the ODL. For example if you signup for the ODL while working on tour 3 and then move to tour 1 you will still be on the ODL. Therefore it is false when management says you must re-signup for the ODL each quarter. To remove yourself from the ODL you write a brief statement that you wish to be removed from the ODL. You turn this statement into your union shop steward.

If you are ODL but don't want to do overtime that particular night you can be by-passed. This is applicable outside of PEAK season, the month of December. To be by-passed, write a statement before the ODL call of the day and turn it into the shop steward.

ODL Bypass

The term ODL Bypass is when an overtime call is made late in the shift when half of the tour has already clocked out. This late call cheats the earlier tour crew that are on the ODL from the overtime being offered. This is a grievance offense.

Creeping Overtime

The postal service allows employees to clock-in eight clicks or five minutes early. For career employees any time outside of your straight time or bid job schedule is overtime. The five minutes early falls into overtime. Supervisors sometimes warn staff of creeping overtime.

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Union

Labor Posters

The Postal Service is a federal government agency and is not subject to state labor jurisdiction. The craft employment within the USPS is union contract, federal minimum wage labor posters do not apply. The lowest contractual wage is many times higher than the 2009 $7.25/hr minimum wage.

Breaks

Is an employee required to take fifteen minute breaks or lunch? There is no federal labor law requiring breaks or lunch. Labor laws of this nature fall under state jurisdiction and since the USPS is part of the federal government it is not subject to state labor law. The employer however is still legally required to offer breaks and lunch per the regulation of OSHA or the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, a federal agency. Technically you are not required to take lunch or breaks, however, you are required to follow the instructions of your supervisor. OSHA can penalize the employer for an employee's failure to take an off-the-clock lunch.

Mail Handler Cross Crafting

If a supervisor instructs an employee to do work which does not belong to the member's craft can the member grieve the instructions of the supervisor. The craft member can write an observation on themselves and report that observation to a steward of the craft of which the Mail Handler is cross crafting, but the Mail Handler will not receive grievance funds and the Mail Handler cannot refuse to do the instructed work. Failure to comply with instructions of a supervisor is a serious offense and can result in discipline. If the Mail Handler is a Mail Handler Assistant failure to follow instructions can disqualify the employee from achieving career status. Failure to follow instructions is a walk-out-able offense. Management has the right to give an employee instructions that are contrary to the craft's work. The unions have the right to hold management accountable to their respective contracts and local agreements through the grievance procedure.

Displacement and Backfill

Displacement is when a bid job employee is moved out of their bid job to work elsewhere in the facility. Backfill is when persons are placed in that bid job who are junior in seniority, are on overtime, or are of another craft doing the work of the displaced bid employee. Displacement and Backfill are grievable. Cross crafting and/or bargaining work is also grievable. Bargaining work is cross crafting of management. It is important that the displaced individual clock-into the operation of the assigned area to provide the union with evidence of the displacement.

Observing Cross Crafting or Bargaining Work

An employee may record an observation of cross crafting or bargaining work. The observation can be completed on a form 13 (a blank sheet of paper) or on a pre-formatted observation sheet. The observation needs to have the

craft being observed

what work is being performed

the duration of the cross crafting or bargaining work

the location of the work being observed

the date of the observation

how many individuals of said craft are performing the work

it is helpful but not necessary if the observed are named

was the work being performed by more than one craft and was management also performing the work

who made the observation

An example

July 20, 2022

5 PSE and 2 204B

Column H11, AFSM prep stations

Flats prepping

PSEs from 13:00-16:00

204B Linda 15:15-16:15

204B Mike 16:30-16:45

Observer - sign and date