Christmas Holiday Facts, By
Bill Lewis ( November 4, 2005)
The following Christmas Holiday facts are for APWU members and the
information contained in the article is from the APWU Collective
Bargaining Agreement. I would like to share with everyone some of the
questions and my responses to many questions relating to the upcoming
Christmas Holiday.
When is my Holiday? This year Christmas Day, December 25,
2005, falls on a Sunday and according to article 11 section 5.A,
"Holiday on Non-Work Day" When a holiday falls on a Sunday, the
following Monday shall be observed as the holiday.
If Sunday is your normally scheduled workday then your holiday will be
observed on Sunday, December 25. If Sunday is your non-scheduled day
then your holiday will be Monday, December 26 and if Sunday Monday are
you non-scheduled days then your holiday is Saturday, December 24.
The 3-day holiday period for Christmas is December 24, 25 & 26. The
holiday schedule must be posted by December 20, 2005. This posting is
mandated by article 11.6.A. The Employer will determine the number and
categories of employees needed for holiday work and a schedule shall
be posted as of the Tuesday preceding the service week in which the
holiday falls.
Do I get paid time and one half if my holiday is other then the
actual holiday? All full time/part time regular employees who
work on the Christmas Holiday or the designated holiday will receive
one and one half times (1 1/2) the base hourly straight time rate for
each hour worked.
A part-time flexible (ptf) employee, who works on December 25, shall
be paid in addition to the employee's regular straight time hourly
rate, one-half (l/2) times the employee's regular straight time hourly
rate for each hour worked up to eight (8) hours.
Do I receive an extra half (½) of day annual leave if I work the
holiday? No, if you elect to be credited with annual leave
instead of the holiday pay you will be credited with up to 8 hours of
annual leave. All this provision of the contract does is allow you to
switch the holiday leave pay for annual leave; you still get paid for
the holiday work hours.
Happy Holidays
Bill Lewis
President
Local #1020
518
Holiday Leave
518.1 Observed Holidays
The following
10 days are observed as holidays by the U.S. Postal Service:
a. New Year's Day January 1.
b. Martin Luther King Jr.'s
Birthday 3rd Monday in January.
c. Washington's
Birthday/Presidents' Day 3rd Monday in February.
d. Memorial Day Last Monday in
May.
e. Independence Day July 4.
f. Labor Day 1st Monday in
September.
g. Columbus Day 2nd Monday in
October.
h. Veterans' Day November 11.
i. Thanksgiving Day 4th
Thursday in November.
j. Christmas Day December 25.
Note:
Administrative leave is not granted for absence on state, local, or
religious holidays. To the fullest extent practicable, annual leave or
LWOP is granted to employees for observance of their religious holidays.
518.2 Holidays on Nonscheduled
Workdays
518.21 Saturday
When a holiday
falls on a Saturday, the preceding Friday is observed as the holiday.
518.22 Sunday
When a holiday
falls on Sunday, the following Monday is observed as the holiday.
518.23 Nonscheduled Workday
When an
employee's nonscheduled workday falls on a day observed as a holiday,
the employee's scheduled workday preceding the holiday is designated as
that employee's holiday.
518.3 Holidays on Scheduled
Workdays
Holidays
falling on an employee's scheduled workday are observed on those days.
518.4 Eligibility for Holiday
Pay
Annual Leave in
Lieu of Holiday Leave Pay
APWU Represented Employees, Mail
Handlers, Postal Police, EAS
Effective immediately,
Employee and Labor Relations Manual (ELM) 434.4, Holiday Leave
Pay, is revised to notify eligible employees that they may elect to
receive annual leave in lieu of holiday leave pay. This section is
also reorganized to improve clarity. The substantive changes appear
in 434.412 and 434.422.
The substantive changes are
made necessary by revisions in Article 11, sections 3 and 4, of the
national agreement between the Postal Service and the American
Postal Workers' Union (APWU), pursuant to the Goldberg Interest
Arbitration Award December 18, 2001, as well as by the Memorandum of
Understanding between the Postal Service and the APWU, January 29,
2002.
The changes affect not only
clerk and maintenance craft employees, but also employees in several
other bargaining units, including the Information
Technology/Accounting Service Center and the Operating Services
Division, both represented by the APWU, as well as mail handlers,
represented by the National Postal Mail Handlers Union, and certain nonbargaining employees in the Executive and Administrative Salary
schedule
b. Variations in
schedule for holiday observance are as follows:
(1) If a holiday falls on an
eligible employee's regular scheduled workday, including Saturday or
Sunday, the employee observes the holiday on that day.
(2) If a holiday falls on an
eligible employee's scheduled nonworkday, the first scheduled day
preceding the holiday is designated as the employee's holiday except
as provided in 434.411b(3) and 434.421.
(3) If a holiday falls on a
Sunday that is a nonscheduled workday for an eligible employee,
Monday is designated as the employee's holiday. However, if Monday
is also a nonscheduled workday, then Saturday is designated as the
employee's holiday. For postal police officers, see the USPS- PPO
Agreement.
(4) For all full-time
postmasters, if a holiday falls on a Saturday that is a nonscheduled
workday, the preceding Friday is designated as the postmaster's
holiday. Where necessary, additional workhour allowances are
authorized for those Post Offices without a senior supervisor to
provide relief coverage during the postmaster's absence on holiday
leave
434.412 Application
On these holidays, eligible
employees receive holiday leave pay for the number of hours equal to
their regular daily work schedule, not to exceed 8 hours (see
434.421). This holiday pay is instead of other paid leave to which
employees might otherwise be entitled on their holiday.
Eligible employees who work
their holiday, at their option, may elect to have their annual leave
balance credited with up to 8 hours of annual leave in lieu of
holiday leave pay (see 434.422). When this option is chosen, the
deferred holiday leave pay is subject to all applicable rules for
requesting and scheduling annual leave and is combined with annual
leave and counted as annual leave for purposes of annual leave
carryover (see 512.32).
Note:
Holiday leave pay should not be confused with
holiday-worked pay, holiday scheduling premium, or Christmas-worked
pay (see 434.5).
434.421 Eligibility for
Holiday Leave Pay
Eligibility is shown by
category on the following chart:
Employee Category
|
Eligible
|
Full-time
|
Yes
|
Part-time
regular, including A-E postmasters, regularly scheduled to
work... Minimum of 5 days (per service week)
|
|
Yes
|
Part-time regular, including A-E postmasters, regularly
scheduled to work...Less than 5 days (per service week)
|
No1
|
Part-time flexible
|
No2
|
Casual
|
No
|
Temporary
|
No
|
Transitional
|
No
|
1
Unless the
holiday falls on their scheduled workday.
2
Holiday pay is
included in the hourly rate.
To receive holiday leave
pay, these employees must be in a pay status either the last
scheduled hour before or the first scheduled hour after the holiday
or designated holiday.
However, for an employee on
extended LWOP, paid leave for the last scheduled hour before or the
first scheduled hour after the holiday or designated holiday is not
approved for the purpose of qualifying the employee for holiday pay.
434.422 Eligibility for
Annual Leave in Lieu of Holiday Leave Pay
Categories of employees
eligible for annual leave in lieu of holiday leave pay are shown on
the following chart:
Salary Schedule
|
Salary Schedule Acronym
|
Rate Schedule Code (RSC)
|
Information
Technology/ Accounting Service Centers
|
IT/ASC
|
N
|
Postal
Service Schedules 1 and 2 (salary tables P and P9)
|
PS-1
PS-2 |
P
PB |
Mail
Equipment Shops/Material Distribution Center (salary tables C
and C9)
|
MESC-1
MESC-2 |
C
CB |
Operating
Services Division
|
OSD
|
K
|
Mail Handlers
|
MH
|
M
|
Executive and
Administrative Schedule*
|
EAS
|
E
|
* Applies to FLSA-nonexempt
employees. Also applies to EAS-23 and below FLSA-exempt employees
who receive additional pay (i.e., special exempt) and also choose to
substitute an entire 8 hours of holiday leave pay for annual leave.
Excludes EAS postmasters,
officers in charge, postal inspectors, and employees in management
development programs.
434.43 Pay Computation for
Holiday Leave Pay
Provisions concerning pay
computation are as follows:
a. Eligible
employees are paid for the holiday at their basic hourly rate for
those hours equal to their regular daily working schedule, not to
exceed 8 hours. Eligible employees may elect to receive annual leave
in lieu of holiday leave pay (see 434.412).
b. Holiday leave
pay is in lieu of other paid leave to which an employee might
otherwise be entitled on the designated holiday.
c. Holiday leave
pay is payable in addition to compensation for hours actually worked
on a designated holiday (see 434.5).
d. Eligible
full-time and part-time regular employees require no specific
authorization to be absent from work on a holiday or a designated
holiday, unless scheduled to work.
e. A full-time
or part-time regular employee who is scheduled to actually work on a
holiday or on a designated holiday, but does not work, is placed in
LWOP status and does not receive holiday leave pay, unless the
absence is based on an extreme emergency situation and the absence
is excused by the employee's supervisor.
f. Holiday leave
paid to an employee who is on a COP status should be recorded as
holiday leave and is counted as one of the 45 calendar days of COP
for OWCP purposes.
g. When a
full-time employee has partially overcome a compensable disability
and is working a partial schedule under the rehabilitation program,
holiday leave is payable up to the number of hours in the partial
schedule. The remainder of the holiday leave pay is received from
OWCP.
* * * * *
Postal Bulletin- Compensation,
Employee Resource Management, 5-13-04
Mail Handlers Article 11
Section 11.3 Payment
A An employee shall receive holiday pay at the employee's base
hourly straight time rate for a number of hours equal to the
employee's regular daily working schedule, not to exceed eight (8)
hours. In addition, as provided for in Section 4 below, employees
who work their holiday may, at their option, elect to have their
annual leave balance credited with up to eight (8) hours of annual
leave in lieu of holiday leave pay.
An eligible employee receives holiday leave pay for the number of
hours equal to the employee’s regular daily work schedule, not to
exceed (8) hours. Thus, fulltime employees receive eight (8) hours
of holiday leave pay. Part-time regular employees scheduled to work
a minimum of 5 days per service week are paid for the number of
hours in their regular schedule. Part-time regular employees who
are regularly scheduled to work less than 5 days per service week
receive holiday leave pay only if the holiday falls on a regularly
scheduled workday .
Source: Employee and Labor Relations Manual (ELM) Chapter 4,
Sections 434.412a and .422.
B Holiday pay is in lieu of other paid leave to which an employee
might otherwise be entitled on the employee's holiday.
Except as discussed under Section 11.4, holiday leave pay “replaces”
other approved paid leave that the employee would otherwise receive
on the holiday. For example, employees who would otherwise receive
approved sick or annual leave on the employee’s holiday would not
have this time charged against their sick and annual leave balance.
Question: May an employee combine annual or sick leave with
holiday leave pay in order to receive additional compensation?
Answer: No. Holiday leave pay is in lieu of other paid leave
to which an employee might otherwise be entitled on a holiday.
Source: ELM 434.412a.
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