Section 12.2

Section 12.2 Principles of Seniority

Introduction
1. The United States Postal Service and the National Postal Mail Handlers Union, A Division of the Laborers’ International Union of North America, AFL-CIO, agree to the following seniority principles which replace all former rules, instructions, and practices.
2. This Article will continue relative seniority standing properly established under past principles, rules and instructions and this Article shall be so applied. If an employee requests a correction of seniority standing, it is the responsibility of the requesting employee to identify and restate the specific instructions, rule, or practice in support of the request.
1. Coverage These rules apply to full-time and part-time fixed schedule employees. No employee, solely by reason of this Section shall be displaced from an assignment which the employee gained in accord with former rules.
2. Responsibility The installation head is responsible for the day-to-day administration of seniority. Installation heads will post a seniority list of Mail Handlers on all official bulletin boards for that installation and provide an electronic or hard copy to the Union representative in that installation. The seniority list shall be corrected and brought up to date quarterly.
Definitions
1. Craft Group A craft group is composed of those positions for which the Union has secured exclusive recognition at the national level.
2. Seniority Standing
1. Seniority for full-time employees is computed from the date of appointment in the craft and continues to accrue so long as service in the craft (regardless of level) and installation is uninterrupted, except as otherwise pro- vided herein.
2. Seniority for part-time fixed schedule employees is computed from the date of appointment in this category of the work force and continues to accrue so long as service in the craft and category and installation is un- interrupted.
3. Duty Assignment A duty assignment is a set of duties and responsibilities within recognized positions regularly scheduled during specific hours of duty.
4. Preferred Duty Assignments A preferred duty assignment is any assignment preferred by a full-time employee or a part-time fixed schedule employee within the employee's category.
5. Bid A request submitted in writing, by telephone, or by computer to be assigned to a duty assignment by an employee eligible to bid on a vacancy or newly established duty assignment or a preferred assignment. Where telephone, computer, or other electronic bidding procedures are established, bids must be submitted by telephone, computer or other electronic methods as agreed to by the parties. [See Memo, page 161]
6. Application A written request by a full-time employee or part-time fixed schedule employee within the employee's respective cate- gory for consideration for an assignment for which the employee is not entitled to submit a bid.
7. Abolishment A management decision to reduce the number of occupied duty assignment(s) in an established section and/or installation.
8. Reversion A management decision to reduce the number of duty assignment(s) in an installation when such duty assignment(s) is/are vacant.
9. Residual Vacancy A duty assignment that remains vacant after the completion of the voluntary bidding process.
3. Relative Standing of Part-Time Flexibles Part-time flexible employees and MHAs are placed on a part-time flexible or MHA roster, as appropriate, in the order of the date of their initial appointment in the installation. When changing such employees to full-time, they shall be taken in the order of their standing on the part-time flexible or the MHA roster. These employees do not have seniority rights; however, their rel- ative length of service shall be used for vacation scheduling and for purposes of conversion to full-time status. When there is an opportunity for conversion to full-time status in an installation and that installation has both part-time flexible and MHA employees available for conversion, the PTFs will be con- verted to full-time regular prior to the conversion of the MHAs.
Changes in Which Seniority is Lost Except as specifically provided elsewhere in this Agreement an employee begins a new period of seniority:
1. When the change is at the employee's request:
1. From one postal installation to another, the employee will begin a new period of seniority as a part-time flexible, if such status is available in the installation.
2. From another craft to the Mail Handler craft, the employee will begin a new period of seniority as a part- time flexible, if such status is available in the installation.
2. Upon reinstatement or reemployment.
3. Upon transfer into the Postal Service.
Changes in Which Seniority is Retained, Regained or Restored
1. Reemployment After Disability Separation. On reinstatement or reemployment after separation caused by disability, retirement or resignation because of personal illness and the employee so stated in the employee's resignation and furnished satisfactory evidence for inclusion in the employee's personnel folder, the employee receives seniority credit for past service for time on the disability retirement or for illness if reinstated or reemployed in the same postal installation and craft and in the same or lower salary level, from which originally separated; provided application for reinstatement or reemployment is made within six months from the date of recovery. The date of recovery in the case of disability retirement must be supported by notice of recovery from the Compensation Group, Office of Personnel Management, and in the case of resignation due to illness, by a statement from the applicant's attending physician or practitioner. When re- instatement is to the part-time flexible roster, standing on the roster shall be the same as if employment had not been interrupted by the separation.
2. Restoration. On restoration in the same craft in the same installation after return from military service, transfer under letter of authority or unjust removal, employee shall regain the same seniority rights the employee would have if not separated.
3. When an employee changes from another craft to the Mail Handler craft involuntarily, the employee will begin a new period of seniority.
4. Reassignment and Return in 90 Days. Beginning on the effective date of the 2016 National Agreement, a Mail Handler who is voluntarily reassigned to another craft in the same installation with or without a change in grade level and who is subsequently voluntarily reassigned within 90 days back to the Mail Handler craft shall regain the seniority previously acquired as a Mail Handler which shall not include the period of intervening employment in the other craft.
5. Failure to Meet Qualification Standards. When an employee is returned to the Mail Handler craft for not being able to meet the qualification standards for a job in the same installation, the employee shall regain former Mail Handler seniority.
6. For purposes of excessing outside the installation, any Mail Handler involuntarily moving from one postal installation to another postal installation shall have seniority established as of the employee's time in the Mail Handler craft in the losing installation.
7. An employee who left the bargaining unit on or after July 21, 1973 and returns to the bargaining unit:
1. will begin a new period of seniority if the employee re- turns from a position outside the Postal Service; or
2. will begin a new period of seniority if the employee re- turns from a nonbargaining unit position (i.e., a position outside of the bargaining units that were covered by the 1978 National Agreement) within the Postal Service, unless the employee returns within 2 years from the date the employee left the unit except as follows:
   1. An employee who left the craft and/or installation after the date of the issuance of the arbitration award determining the terms and conditions of the 1994 National Agreement, and returns to the craft and/or installation, will begin a new period of seniority unless the employee returns within 1 year from the date that the employee left the craft and/or installation.
   2. The seniority for an employee returning, within one year, under G7b1 above shall be established after reassignment as the seniority the employee had when he/she left minus seniority credit for service outside the craft and/or installation.
3. Except as otherwise specifically provided for in this Agreement, effective the date of this Agreement, when it is necessary to resolve a tie in seniority between two or more Mail Handler craft employees, the following criteria shall apply in the order set forth below:
1. Total continuous postal career service in the Mail Handler craft within the installation.
2. Total postal career service in the Mail Handler craft within the installation.
3. Total postal career service in the Mail Handler craft.
4. Total postal career service within the installation.
5. Total postal career service.
6. Total Federal service as shown in the service computation date.
7. Numerical by the last 3 or more numbers (using enough numbers to break the tie but not fewer than 3 numbers) of the employee's social security number, from the lowest to highest.
4. Effective January 1, 2007, any Mail Handler who voluntarily transfers from one postal installation to another postal installation, and is subsequently accepted for voluntary transfer back to the original postal installation within one (1) year, shall have seniority established as the seniority the employee had when she/he left the original installation minus credit for service for the time away from that installation.
All positions presently in the Mail Handler craft, including higher level positions, shall be filled by the senior qualified bidder meeting the qualification standards for the position, except that those positions which are presently designated best qualified shall be filled by the best qualified applicant.
1. Key and Standard Positions Assigned to the Mail Handler Craft
1. Key Position

   Mail Handler, MH 4, KP 8

2. Standard Positions

   Group Leader Mail Handler, MH 5, SP1-33

   Label Printing Technician, MH 5, SP2-578

   Label Machine Operator, MH 4, SP2-579

   *Laborer, Materials Handling, MH 3, SP1-11

   Mail Handler Equipment Operator, MH 5, SP2-21 Mail Equipment Handler, MH 4, SP2-247

   Mail Handler Technician, MH 5, SP2-498

   Mail Processing Machine Operator, MH 5, SP2-354 Mail Processing Machine Operator, MH 5, SP2-470 Packer-Shipper, MH 4, SP2-581

   *When the "Laborer, Materials Handling" position is authorized for the post office branch, it is delegated to the Mail Handler Craft. When authorized for the Maintenance Branch it is assigned to the Maintenance Craft.

   Sack Sorting Machine Operator, MH 4, SP2-367

   Sack Sorting Machine Operator, MH 5, SP2-438

   Typist-Label Printing, MH 4, SP2-580

   Computer Print Line Production Operator, MH 5, SP2- 632

   Mail Rewrapper, MH 4, SP2-9

2. Individual Positions Assigned to the Mail Handler Craft: Group Leader Mail Handlers, MH 6, IP248-7, 2315-02, Group Leader Sack Sorter Machine Operator, MH 6, IP25- 11-1, 2315-28, Mail Handler Leadman, MH 5, IP32-12-1, 2315-80.
3. All Mail Handler employees of Level MH-5 may bid for the position of Examination Specialist, SP2-188.
[See Letter, page 162]
Filling Positions Reevaluated as One of the Positions Reserved for Bidding by MH 4's, MH 5's and MH 6's.
1. When an occupied level 4 or 5 position is upgraded on the basis of the present duties:
1. The incumbent will remain in the upgraded job pro- vided the incumbent has been in that job for more than one year.
2. The job will be posted for bid in accordance with the Agreement if the incumbent has not been in the job for more than one year.
2. When an occupied level 4 or 5 position is upgraded on the basis of duties which are added to the position:
1. The incumbent will remain in the upgraded job pro- vided the incumbent has been in that job for more than one year. The year of required incumbency in the job begins when the employee first begins working the assignment.
2. The job will be posted for bid in accordance with the Agreement if the incumbent has not been in the job in accordance with §12.2I2a, above.
3. When management places automatic equipment in an office and an employee is assigned to operate the equipment, the time the employee spends on this job before it is ranked established shall be counted as incumbency in the position for the purpose of being upgraded or assigned.