§ 15.3 NA2022

§ 15.3 Grievance Procedure-General

1. The parties expect that good faith observance, by their respective representatives, of the principles and procedures set forth above will result in settlement or withdrawal of substantially all grievances initiated hereunder at the lowest possible step and recognize their obligation to achieve that end. Every effort shall be made to ensure timely compliance and payment of monetary grievance settlements and arbitration awards. The Employer agrees that upon receipt of necessary paperwork, from the grievant and/or union, concerning a grievance settlement or arbitration award, monetary remuneration will be made. The necessary paperwork is the documents and statements specified in Subchapter 436.4 of the ELM. The Employer will provide the union copies of appropriate pay adjustment forms, including confirmation that such forms were submitted to the appropriate postal officials for compliance and that action has been taken to ensure that the affected employee(s) receives payment and/or other benefits. In the event that an employee is not paid within sixty (60) days after submission of all the necessary paperwork, such employee, upon request, will be granted authorization from management to receive a pay advance equal to seventy (70) percent of the payment owed the employee. In the event of a dispute between the parties concerning the correct amount to be paid, the advance required by this section will be the amount that is not in dispute.
2. The failure of the employee or the Union in Step 1, or the Union thereafter to meet the prescribed time limits of the Steps of this procedure, including arbitration, shall be considered as a waiver of the grievance. However, if the Employer fails to raise the issue of timeliness at Step 2, or at the step at which the employee or Union failed to meet the prescribed time limits, whichever is later, such objection to the processing of the grievance is waived.
3. Failure by the Employer to schedule a meeting or render a decision in any of the Steps of this procedure within the time herein provided (including mutually agreed to extension periods) shall be deemed to move the grievance to the next Step of the grievance-arbitration procedure.
4. It is agreed that in the event of a dispute between the Union and the Employer as to the interpretation of this Agreement, such dispute may be initiated as a grievance at the Step 4 level by either party. Such a grievance shall be initiated in writing and must specify in detail the facts giving rise to the dispute, the precise interpretive issues to be decided and the contention of the initiating party. Thereafter the parties shall meet in Step 4 within thirty (30) days in an effort to define the precise issues involved, develop all necessary facts, and reach agreement. Should they fail to agree, then, within fifteen (15) days of such meeting, each party shall provide the other with a statement in writing of its understanding of the issues involved, and the facts giving rise to such issues. In the event the parties have failed to reach agreement within sixty (60) days of the initiation of the grievance in Step 4, the Union then may appeal it to arbitration, within thirty (30) days thereafter.
5. The parties have agreed to jointly develop and implement a Contract Interpretation Manual (CIM) within six (6) months after the effective date of the 1998 National Agreement. The CIM will set forth the parties' mutual understanding regarding the proper interpretation and/or application of the provisions of this Agreement. It is not intended to add to, modify, or replace, in any respect, the language in the current Agreement; nor is it intended to modify in any way the rights, responsibilities, or benefits of the parties under the Agreement. However, production of the CIM demonstrates the mutual intent of the parties at the National level to encourage their representatives at all levels to reach resolution regarding issues about which the parties are in agreement and to encourage consistency in the application of the terms of the Agreement. For these reasons, the positions of the parties as set forth in the CIM shall be binding on the representatives of both parties in the resolution of disputes at the Local and Regional levels, and in the processing of grievances through Steps 1, 2 and 3 of the grievance-arbitration procedure. In addition, the positions of the parties as set forth in the CIM are binding on the arbitrator, in accordance with the provisions of Article 15.4A6, in any Regional level arbitration case in which the CIM is introduced. The CIM will be updated periodically to reflect any modifications to the parties' positions which may result from National level arbitration awards, Step 4 decisions, or other sources. The parties' representatives are encouraged to utilize the most recent version of the CIM at all times.

[See Memos and Letters, pages 195-203]

LOI Letter on Article 15 Issues

John F. Hegarty
National President
National Postal Mail Handlers Union, AFL-CIO
1101 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 500
Washington, DC 20036-4304

Dear Mr. Hegarty:

During negotiations over the terms of the 2006 National Agreement between the National Postal Mail Handlers Union and the U.S. Postal Service, the parties reached the following understandings with regard to the changes made to Article 15.3D and Article 15.4D2.

1. Any dispute initiated by the Employer at the National level under Article 15.3D shall not include any issue that previously has been appealed by the Union to the National arbitration docket.
2. If the parties are unable to resolve a dispute initiated by the Employer at the National level under Article 15.3D, then the Union has the option to accept the Employer’s position on that issue or appeal the issue to National arbitration within existing contractual time limits. The Employer has no right to appeal any dispute or issue to National arbitration.
3. If either the Employer or the Union, or both, do not opt to elect priority scheduling to the top of the National arbitration docket for up to two cases in any given calendar year, then those available arbitration hearing dates will revert to the dates subject to the preexisting scheduling standards — i.e., cases on the docket will be scheduled for arbitration in the order in which appealed, unless otherwise agreed to by the parties.
4. Cases on the National arbitration docket will be scheduled for arbitration with no less than one hundred and fifty (150) days notice to both parties measured from the date of scheduling to the date of the initial arbitration hearing, unless the parties mutually agree to expedite a particular hearing date.
5. Any local grievances filed on the specific interpretive issues pending on the National arbitration docket shall, upon mutual agreement, be held in abeyance at Step 3 until resolution of the national interpretive dispute. Said grievances should not be referred/appealed to Step 4 merely because the parties cannot agree on whether the specific interpretive issue is fairly presented in the local grievance.
6. Ordering of those cases elected for priority scheduling shall be accomplished in the following manner: during each calendar year, the first case to be heard of the possible four such cases will be that case which has the earliest appeal to arbitration date. If this first case was selected for priority scheduling by the Union, the second case will be the Employer’s priority case with the earlier appeal date, the third will be the Union’s remaining case, and the fourth the Employer’s remaining case. If the first case (the case with the earliest appeal date of the parties’ four cases) is a case selected for priority scheduling by the Employer, the ordering process described above will be reversed. Unless the parties mutually agree otherwise, any priority cases remaining on the docket from prior calendar year(s) shall remain in their respective positions on the docket, with the newly-selected priority cases scheduled behind them in the above-described order.

Valerie E. Martin
Manager, Contract Administration NPMHU
U.S. Postal Service

MOU Article 15 (MAP)

The parties agree to continue piloting the Modified Arbitration Procedure (MAP). Locations for further implementation of the MAP will be subject to mutual agreement of the parties.
This Memorandum of Understanding shall be effective during the term of the 2022 National Agreement.

MOU Task Force on Developing a Pilot of Electronic Submission of Grievance Appeals to the LR Service Center

The parties agree to establish at the National level a “Task Force on Developing a Pilot of Electronic Submission of Grievance Appeals to the LR Service Center.”
The Task Force will discuss the feasibility and the means by which such a pilot would be conducted.
Nothing in the memorandum is intended to negate or alter the applicable requirements of the National Agreement.

LOI Article 15.2 Step 3

The Arbitration Panel orders the parties to establish a Step 3 Scheduling Task Force to determine the most efficient location in which Step 3 meetings are to be held.

MOU Step 4 Procedures

This memorandum represents the parties' agreement with regard to withdrawing a grievance from regional arbitration and referring it to Step 4 of the grievance procedure.

If a case is withdrawn from regional arbitration, referred to Step 4, and then remanded as noninterpretive, it will be returned directly to regional arbitration to be heard before the same arbitrator who was scheduled to hear the case at the time of the referral to Step 4. The case will be scheduled on that arbitrator's next available date (i.e., the next date for which cases have not already been scheduled.) Additionally, if the hearing had opened, the case will be returned to the same stage of arbitration. If the case had not previously been scheduled for an arbitration hearing, it will be given priority scheduling, such that the case will be heard in the same order which would have applied if the case had not been withdrawn and referred. In the event that the case would already have been heard had it not been withdrawn and referred, then the case will be heard as the next case on the appropriate docket.

MOU Pre-Arbitration Discussions

The Arbitration Panel directs the parties to discuss whether to make changes to the pre-arbitration discussion set forth in Article 15.4(B)(5). Such discussions shall include, but are not limited to, the consideration of the following issues:

1. The timing for any pre-arbitration discussions;
2. Whether cases should be placed on a scheduling letter before any such pre-arbitration discussion is held;
3. Procedures to address a refusal by any party to conduct a pre-arbitration discussion; and
4. The process for scheduling cases following the completion of the pre-arbitration discussion.

MOU [Schedule Letter and Withdraw]

The Arbitration Panel directs the parties to discuss the creation of a pilot program to address issues regarding the number of cases to be placed on a scheduling letter and the withdrawal, postponement, or referral of grievances that have been placed on a scheduling letter for arbitration. Such discussions shall include, but are not limited to, the consideration of the following issues:

1. The number of cases that shall be placed on a scheduling letter;
2. The terms of arbitrator contracts, including the appropriate timeframe in which cancellation fees are owed to the arbitrator; and
3. The circumstances under which one party or the other would be fully responsible for the payment of any cancellation fees.

MOU National Administrative Committee

The U.S. Postal Service and the National Postal Mail Handlers Union, A Division of the Laborers’ International Union of North America, AFL-CIO, agree to continue the National Administrative Committee (NAC) to help resolve technical and/or complex disputes that may arise during the course of their National Agreement and may not be amenable to the usual Grievance-Arbitration Procedures established by the National Agreement. The NAC will be used to resolve those disputes jointly identified by the parties without the need to file any grievances. A listing of subjects for consideration in the NAC will be updated by the parties at the national level within 60 days following the effective date of this Memorandum of Understanding. By mutual agreement, the parties at the national level may continue to add subjects to the original listing. The parties will meet within six (6) months of the effective date of this Memorandum of Understanding, as well as every six (6) months thereafter, or more frequently as the need arises, to review the activities of the NAC.
For each subject(s), the Employer and the Union will designate individuals at the national level who will be responsible for discussing and, where possible, for resolving any disputes concerning the referenced subject(s). When a specific subject is under consideration by the NAC, any grievance(s) concerning that identified subject will be removed from the Grievance/Arbitration Procedure and forwarded to the NAC. When a grievance(s) has been filed and the subject of that grievance subsequently comes under consideration by the NAC, such grievance(s) will be removed and forwarded to the NAC.
The national level designees will be responsible for meeting regularly to resolve pending disputes. No special forms, appeals or paper work will be necessary to present a dispute to the NAC. When the designees cannot agree upon a resolution, either party may declare an impasse. Each party will identify the issue in dispute in writing within 30 days after the declared impasse on the subject. The identified dispute will then be placed on the appropriate arbitration docket.
The parties will update specific instructions concerning the NAC within 60 days after the effective date of this Memorandum of Understanding.
This Memorandum of Understanding shall be effective during the term of the 2022 National Agreement

MOU Intervention Initiative

The parties agree to establish at the National level an "Intervention Protocol" to facilitate resolution of contractually-based disputes at the local level which contribute to contentious labor-management relations. Interventions are intended to analyze the underlying causes of such ongoing contractual disputes and to reach resolution through cooperative efforts.
The parties agree that all efforts initiated under this agreement will be coordinated by the National parties and the respective local and/or Area/Regional management and union officials who are responsible for ensuring that such problems are properly resolved.
Either party at the local level may advance an individual request for intervention to their respective National representatives. An intervention will be initiated contingent upon mutual agreement between the National parties. It is agreed that the following rationale, while not intended to be all-inclusive, may be used to support a request for intervention:

• ongoing or repetitive labor-management problems related to the local parties' inability to jointly settle or to identify the root cause of a contractually-based dispute(s);
• continued failure of either party to comply with the grievance-arbitration procedures of Article 15;
• excessive use of official time or excessive denial of official union time; and
• excessive cancellation of arbitration dates.

This Memorandum of Understanding shall be effective during the term of the 2022 National Agreement. § 15.3.x NA2022 § 15.3.xi NA2022 § 15.3.xii NA2022 § 15.3.xiii NA2022 § 15.3.xiv NA2022