HELP WANTED! WORK FOR FREE!
If you were unemployed and looking for work and came upon this sign, HELP WANTED WORK FOR FREE, I am sure you would pass it right up! Why would anyone want to work for a company and not get paid! How stupid is that work for free! Yet in the post office that is exactly what is going on.
Yes, this article is about working off the clock! Whenever I make a station visit it seems the seasoned/senior carriers are complaining to me about the new employees mostly CCA’s or newly converted to full-timers working off the clock in the morning rushing to put their DPS or FSS mail in the case before they must clock in and get paid for working.
According to Article 7 section 1.A.1…regular schedules consisting of five (5) eight (8) hour days in a service week. Article 8 section 4.b states: overtime shall be paid to employees for work performed only after 8 hours on duty in any one service day or 40 hours in any one service week. Article 41 section 3.k states: Supervisors shall not require, not permit employees to work off the clock.
These three articles in the National Agreement guarantee that you are paid for working for the USPS 8 hours of pay per day, overtime after 8 hours in a day or 40 hours in a week. These three articles do not allow management from ordering you or allowing you to work off the clock without receiving compensation - pay. So why are you doing it!
Some managements are allowing carriers to work off the clock because it shows an increase in productivity and makes management look good when they are on the teleconference with the district. Any letter carrier that knowingly works off the clock is violating the contract, betraying his fellow letter carriers, and is only going to get an addition when management reviews the routes under route adjustments. If it is not your route and you are just filling in there are consequences to your actions as well. One would be when they evaluate the routes management will eliminate an assignment or two and then you will not get converted to career status due to this elimination of assignments, the other is they might not need you any longer in this office because they eliminated assignments and now have no need for you due to extra bodies and you will be reassigned or excessed to another office.
These carriers that work off the clock are undermining our protections and guarantees under the National Agreement. These carriers working off the clock make other letter carriers performance look poor because their performance will appear better than carriers that do not work off the clock.
The letter carrier that works off the clock is not only hurting himself or herself but also is depriving other letter carriers beside himself or herself of overtime if warranted. Working off the clock also has an impact on CCA’s that may not receive an 8-hour day or a 40-hour work week, because you are working for free.
If you are working off the clock you might be saying to yourself boy, am I getting over on the boss, but the bottom line is the boss is getting over on you - YOU ARE WORKING FOR FREE!
So, think twice before you work off the clock, our union and other unions fought hard for you to be guaranteed 8 hours of work for 8 hours of pay. Our national union negotiated and fought hard to get these articles that I spoke of and other articles into our contract for the best interest of the letter carrier. No one should violate these rules or articles. If you are working off the clock STOP IT! If you know a letter carrier that is working off the clock, tell them to STOP IT! If the letter carrier continues to work off the clock inform your shop steward. Remember, some carriers may be authorized to start early, and others may have an approved change in schedule which should be authorized by your shop steward. The job you may be saving/protecting by doing this may be your own!
Working off the clock does not only mean casing mail. It means getting your FSS in order if your office has FSS, your DPS in order, doing forwarding’s or even cleaning up you work area, while not on the clock. Working off the clock does not mean prior to or after you clock out it also means if you work through your lunch period which is a half hour because we do not get paid for lunch.
These are just some examples of working off the clock that you should not be doing! We should all be smart, management nickel and dime us to death over minutes, so we must protect what we have and fight for what we want!
Stay safe!
