Pivoting - steward resources

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easons as to why this is, at this time, strictly a management tool that has not been nationally approved or recognized by both parties as bona fide. It is this estimation that the POST provides, that your manager uses to suggest to you that you should be able to carry your route and a push or pivot and be back on time. This ‘plan’ is sometimes used to intimidate a small percent of the carriers not wise to management’s techniques. As we all have witnessed, there are rare days of very light mail volume when all of us know well that their day is short and have no problem offering management assistance by voluntarily taking a pivot to fulfill the day. We have all done this. Unfortunately, the trend has been that management will expect that type of cooperation from the carriers when it is not warranted or justifiable, or when the POST has incorrectly indicated, or estimated, a light day. Now let’s examine how management sometimes takes this one step further by having a carrier curtail mail in order to create or ‘artificially induce’ undertime. First we must examine management’s reliance or interpretation of the language within the Postal Operations Manual (POM) that states the following: Section 617.2 Employee Undertime Utilization - Pivoting ,II Pivoting is a method of utilizing the undertime of one or several carriers to perform duties on a temporarily vacant route or to cover absences. Non-preferential mail may be curtailed within delivery time standards on the vacant route and/or on the routes of the carriers being pivoted. .12 Pivoting is not limited to periods when mail volume is light and when absences are high but can be utilized throughout the year for maintaining balanced carrier workloads. While this language allows for pivoting, it does not, and should not be read or interpreted as to allow for circumvention of Article 41 provisions of the National Agreement. Article 41.1.C.4 states the following: The successful bidder shall work the duty assignment as posted. Unanticipated circumstances may require a temporary change in assignment. This same rule shall apply to Carrier
Technician assignments, unless the local agreement provides otherwise. This JCAM language is a result of a Step 4 decision as follows: Prearbitration Settlement M-01292 July 28, 1997, F94N-4F-C 97005324 The parties agreed that application of section 617.2 Pivoting, of the Postal Operations Manual (POM) does not change the provisions of Article 41, Section l.C.4 of the National Agreement. Routers must be kept on their bid assignment and not moved off the duties in the bid description unless there is an undertime situation, or in "unanticipated circumstances." Let’s also examine the way that arbitrators have defined ‘unanticipated circumstances’ as used in the National Agreement. An unanticipated condition, by definition, cannot be one which is known, deliberately created, or planned by the Service prior to its occurrence. C-16483 Unscheduled sick leave does not constitute an "unanticipated circumstance" within the meaning of Article 41 Section 1.C.4. C-03633 Regional Arbitrator Holly Unfortunately management does deliberately create and plan to cover vacancies by creating undertime by instructing carriers to curtail mail thereby reducing the carriers workload to less than the bid assignment’s posted eight hours. This action is a violation of Article 41.1.C.4. Let’s take for example Branch 100 in Ohio. These Brothers and Sisters filed such a grievance and Arbitrator Ross ruled in 2002 the following: Regular Arbitration C-23458 (June 21, 2002) Jerome H. Ross, Arbitrator
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Pivoting - steward resources

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