NEW HR WEBSITE LAUNCHES TODAY

REVAMPED SITE HELPS EMPLOYEES AND HR PROFESSIONALS

Human Resources has redesigned its website. It’s available today and serves as a one-stop location for HR services and information.

Design was based on audience research and usability studies, and contains several intuitive and easy-to-navigate avenues for accessing information. These include:

• “I want to” — links to some of the most sought after information by users.
• “Browse by Subject” — links to specific HR areas of interest, such as benefits, careers, and retirement.
• “I am ...” — links to select employee types with information about specific issues, such as employees on military duty or working at headquarters.
• “Did you know?” — a constantly updated and interactive billboard featuring some of the hottest topics at any given time, such as Open Season and Coping with Work/Life Changes.

Other new features include links to some of the most commonly asked questions or popular topics such as “Change Your Address” and “How to Change Your USPS PIN.”

One of the unique features of the new HR website is its “Professional Portal.” Designed for HR professionals and managers, this portal provides work instructions, toolkits, and more on all things HR — benefits, learning, the workforce, careers, employment rights, the work environment, and local services.

“This is only the beginning,” said Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer Tony Vegliante. “Far from a one-time endeavor, our website is Human Resource’s ongoing commitment to providing correct, consistent, and timely information for our users so that they’re constantly engaged and informed.”

Click here to visit the new website. You also can access the new HR website from Blue by clicking on “Human Resources” under “Blue Sponsors” at the bottom, left-hand corner of the Blue home page. Or, click on the “Inside USPS” tab on Blue. A link to the new site is also in the “Employee Resources” and “Hot Topics” sections of Blue.

USPS To End Saturday Service?

Those Who Tell Workers to Sacrifice
Fail to Understand Postal Realities

Burrus Update #19-2009, Nov. 17, 2009

As the Postal Service struggles with severe financial losses, postal commentators pontificate on the steps that must be taken to ensure its return to solvency. The standard line espoused by spokesmen for the major mailers is that the postal workers must lower their expectations for wages, benefits and working conditions. In addition, these pundits suggest that management must be provided greater flexibility in the assignment of employees.

I suggest that those who are unfamiliar with the detailed contractual agreements between postal unions and the Postal Service should refrain from speaking about issues they know so little about.

In response to the demand that postal wages and benefits must be moderated, I respond: How do you calculate the savings generated by the elimination of 125,000 craft jobs? Are savings only calculated on the hourly wages workers earn?

I challenge any other entity in the “postal community,” including the major mailers, mail consolidators, printers and prognosticators, to prove that they have made a greater contribution to restoring the USPS to solvency than the savings generated by the major reduction in craft jobs.

To the charge that postal management is overly restricted in the daily assignment of work, I suggest that the critics look at the 20,000 post offices where postmasters and supervisors routinely perform craft work and craft employees regularly serve as replacements for supervisory personnel.

I challenge the analysts who know absolutely nothing about the assignment of postal employees to compare the contractual limitations in more than 20,000 small post offices to any workplace — union or non-union, including Walmart and McDonalds — and show me more flexibility than exists in these assignments. Contractual agreements that simply impose order on the movement of employees cannot be interpreted as restrictions.

William Burrus
President

 OPM on Insurance

OPM ANNOUNCED THAT LETTERS MAILED LAST MONTH TO ENROLLEES IN THE FEDERAL LONG TERM CARE INSURANCE PROGRAM CONTAINED ERRORS IN THE 'BENEFIT AMOUNT' SECTION OF THEIR ELECTION LETTERS. THE ERRORS AFFECT ENROLLEES WITH THE AUTOMATIC COMPOUND INFLATION OPTION WHOSE ANNIVERSARY DATE FOR ANNUAL BENEFIT INCREASES IS NOVEMBER1, DECEMBER1, OR JANUARY 1. PERSONALIZED CORRECTED LETTERS WILL BE MAILED IN DECEMBER TO AFFECTED ENROLLEES AND THOSE ENROLLEES WILL BE PROVIDED AN EXTENSION OF TIME UP TO MARCH 15, 2010, TO REVIEW THEIR OPTIONS AND MAKE A DECISION. THOSE WHO HAVE ALREADY SUBMITTED THEIR DECISIONS BASED ON THE ERRONEOUS LETTERS AND WANT TO RECONSIDER THEIR DECISION MUST CALL 1-800-582-3337.  THAT IS ALSO THE NUMBER MEMBERS MUST CALL IF THEY HAVE QUESTIONS ABOUT THEIR FLTCIP ENROLLMENT.

Dave Snell, Retirement Benefits Service Department

Open Season on Facebook

The Federal Employees Health Benefits Program has come to Facebook, with a new page called Fed Benefits Open Season. The page offers quick links to sites and brochures covering health, vision and dental plan offerings, flexible savings accounts and other open season concerns. The new page was gaining “fans” quickly as the week opened.

To see the page, go to: www.facebook.com/fedbenefits.

Open Season: Nov. 9 - Dec. 14
APWU Offers Two Great Health Insurance Plans

APWU Web News Article #138-09, Nov. 10, 2009

As the Health Plan Open Season gets underway, APWU President William Burrus urges postal and federal employees to give careful consideration to the two great healthcare options offered by the APWU.

The national debate over healthcare reform has focused on the dilemma facing workers with pre-existing conditions, and has highlighted the need for a public option and employer mandates, Burrus notes in a new video.

“These factors, which are so important to millions of Americans, are non-factors in the APWU Health Plan. We offer two of the best health plans in the country.”

Check out the video.

Stand-up talk on FERS sick leave savings

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As part of the Defense Authorization bill signed on Oct. 28^th, those employees covered by the Federal Employees Retirement System, known as FERS, will now receive credit for unused sick leave at retirement.

This will allow you to "add on" to your time-in-service in the computation of the annuity benefit.

Here are the details:

FERS employees who retire before Jan. 1, 2014, will receive a 50 percent time-in-service credit for unused sick leave.

FERS employees who retire on or after January 1, 2014, will receive full time-in-service credit for their unused sick leave.

You cannot apply unused sick leave to satisfy the eligibility requirements for retirement. You must have the required years of service to make you eligible.

How will this benefit you? The more sick leave you accumulate, the higher your retirement annuity will be.

Sick leave is the ultimate insurance policy. Few other companies allow you to roll over your accumulated leave, which guarantees your income through any sickness, especially long-term illness.

But if you’re healthy and able to save your leave, you’ll also be able to reap financial rewards at the end of your career.

If you want to see how this will affect your personal situation, you can find FERS retirement calculators on the Internet.

Union President Criticizes USPS
For Lack of Diversity in Executive Staff

APWU Web News Article #137-09, Nov. 6, 2009

In a letter to the Postal Service Board of Governors, APWU President William Burrus wrote he is “deeply troubled” by the lack of diversity in the USPS executive staff, and said, “Although the nation has made significant progress toward equality, it appears that the USPS remains mired in the Dark Ages.” Burrus wrote the letter after receiving a copy of Postal Service’s Official Organizational Chart.

“It is inexcusable that women and people of color have been relegated to such a small role in the managerial structure, especially considering the fact that the workforce at-large is so much more reflective of the population,” he said in the Oct. 22 letter.

“Applying any reasonable standard of inclusion, one has every reason to expect that the United States Postal Service should and must do better.”

As of this date, the Board of Governors has not responded to the letter.

The Courier, Express, and Postal Observer has noted that:

• Given the difficulty of selling eliminating long-standing contract provisions to their members, postal unions and the Postal Service are likely heading toward an arbitrated contract agreement where an arbitrator will be asked to make the choice between jobs and compensation.
• On November 5th, former Deputy Postmaster General Michael Caughlin suggested that the Postal Service in order to survive must have a much smaller footprint with possibly 150 plants and 400,000 employees....His response raises an important question that opponents of shrinking the network will raise. Can the Postal Service maintain service levels if the network of processing plants shrinks to less than half of its current size?

Will USPS Borrow Successful Strategies from Overseas? … Probably Not

A postal expert told lawmakers last week that the financially troubled U.S. Postal Service needs to study the successful retail strategies overseas postal authorities have used to adapt to a changing Internet-driven communications landscape—but he also expressed little optimism that similar strategies would take hold in the United States.

Michael S. Coughlin, a retired deputy postmaster general, testified Nov. 5 before the House Postal Subcommittee, detailing the ways that foreign postal organizations have expanded their retail efforts outside the traditional postal arena. Coughlin noted that postal authorities in other countries, notably Japan and Germany, have significantly grown revenue outside of traditional mail services. He said that while USPS earns about 17 percent of revenues from services other than traditional mail, successful posts in Japan and Germany earn 93percent and 76 percent, respectively, from competitive services.

At the same time, Coughlin said such efforts would have a hard time taking hold here, because they would be hobbled by regulatory and “cultural” limits on what services USPS is permitted to provide.

“In the past, when USPS has attempted to offer such services, there has been very strong and noisy resistance from those who see themselves in competition with the postal offering,” Coughlin said.

Government Accountability Office testimony at the same hearing backed up Coughlin’s pessimism. Past USPS projects to generate additional revenue have achieved only “limited results,” said GAO’s Phillip Herr. GAO also noted that while USPS has asked Congress to pass legislation to allow it to offer competitive services such as banking and insurance, USPS—with outstanding debt over $10 billion and growing—would be assuming even more risk by entering those markets.

To see more, go to: http://oversight.house.gov/index.php?option=com_
content&task=view&id=4670&Itemid=27.

Job Cuts or Wage Cuts