Pivoting
Management has been pivoting letter carriers when they identify under time on a carriers route. It is important to know your rights when this occurs.
Management will identify under time or “down-time” with the carriers office time, when some days the mail volume drops off. All routes have office time and street time that add up to an eight hour day. When management feels that a carrier does not have enough mail volume to keep that carrier busy for their normal amount of office time in the morning, they are claiming that carrier has “down-time” and are asking that carrier to “pivot” on another assignment. This pivoting could be done by office work or street work on another route.
Management is identifying this “down-time” by using their DOIS numbers. DOIS is only a tool for management to use to get an evaluation of the carrier’s route. The carrier must inform management if they can’t maintain their 8 hour assignment. Management sometime uses the phrase “demonstrated ability” at casing mail when they determine this “down-time”. In most cases how they have arrived at this “demonstrated ability” is anyone’s guess. And even if it is somehow correct, there is nothing in our contract that states that a carrier MUST throw at the exact same speed every single day!
Form 1840 from your last route inspection will show your office and street time. Once you know your times, determining if you have legitimate “down-time” is easy. For example, if your leaving time is 9:30 AM, and you have enough mail on your own route to keep you busy until 9:30 AM, then you don’t have “down-time”, no matter what the DOIS computer says!! Don’t let management con you into believing you have ‘down-time” if you don’t. If management orders you to “pivot” (do work on another assignment, either in the office or in the street) and you don’t have legitimate “down-time”, then you should inform management that you will now need overtime to complete your assignment, (fill out a 3996 and/or call them from the street), as it will now be impossible to do the 8 hours work on your own route, and do the extra work management ordered you to do on another route, all in 8 hours! If you are not on the overtime list, and this situation above occurs, and management orders you to do this overtime, then you should see your shop steward as you may now have a grievance. If you have a grievance in this situation, then file one. This Union has worked hard to get the contractual benefits we currently have. Don’t let management violate them, period.
On the flip side, there are days where you may have legitimate “down-time”. If this does occur, management can provide work on another assignment for you to do (pivot you), for the same amount of time that you have “down-time”, no more. If they try to pivot you longer than the amount of “down-time” you actually have, once again you will run into overtime, so follow the advice above.
In some stations, where there is legitimate “down-time” on a route, management in the past has sometimes asked carriers if they want to take annual leave instead of pivoting on another assignment. Remember, you cannot be forced to use your annual leave. As a regular carrier our contract guarantees you eight hours work/pay per day. If you run out of work on your own assignment, it’s up to management to find other work for you to do. If they cannot, that’s their problem. You cannot be forced to take annual, or get less than eight hours work/pay (as a regular) unless you volunteer to take your annual leave.
Please remember to drink a lot of water on your route on those hot summer days to keep yourself hydrated.
Be safe and keep smiling.
