PSEs should be aware that the USPS cannot be relied upon to provide accurate information to outsiders — such as prospective employers or loan officers — about your employment history. Of course, this could have negative consequences far beyond the Postal Service. 
Let’s assume that you are a PSE and you are considering other employment or you are thinking about applying for a mortgage or other loan. Let’s also assume that you worked as a casual employee for three years and as a Clerk Craft PSE for two additional years. If you cite your five years of postal employment on your job or loan application, you could run into a problem.
You would think that the USPS would be capable of providing reliable, accurate information about your job history, but this may not be true.
The problem is that the Postal Service has subcontracted many Human Resources functions to private companies. Employees are told to give an 800 phone number to anyone who needs to verify work history.
But when a prospective employer or loan officers calls the 800 number, the response is based only on the employee’s most recent Form 50. Thus, for non-career employees, the computer shows a new period of employment after every five-day break.
The APWU has demanded a meeting over this unfair situation and is insisting that the Postal Service change its computer system. Unfortunately, I don’t expect a quick resolution of this issue. So, for now, there are two short-term solutions: Get your supervisor or manager to write a letter confirming your length of service or save all your Forms 50 to present to your prospective employer.
I won’t go so far as to say the responsible managers don’t care, but they have known about this problem for years and they haven’t fixed it yet.
PSE Reports on Website
Locals are reminded that PSE Compliance Reports are posted at http://www.apwu.org/dept/ind-rel/irpsereports.htm. The reports are an essential tool for enforcing contractual limits on the number of PSEs the USPS may hire.
The national union monitors violations of district-wide PSE caps. Last year we filed grievances over violations, and we have appealed the issue to arbitration. We are hopeful that the case will be heard later this fall.
However, limits on the number of PSEs working the window in an installation must be monitored and enforced at the local level. In a recent PSE Compliance Report (for Pay Period 14) the USPS indicated that management was exceeding the installation limit on PSEs working the window in 553 installations! In eight installations, the USPS admitted that there were five or more PSEs over the limit.
Keep in mind these are the installations where management admits exceeding the cap. We believe that in many locations, management is underreporting the number of PSEs working the window by assigning them an incorrect Designation/Activity code (D/A code). PSEs who work the window should have a D/A code of 81-4.
As you may know, in Level 22-andabove post offices, the number of PSEs who work the window may not exceed 10 percent of the career clerks in the installation who work the window. In Level 21-and-below post offices, the number of PSEs who may work the window may not exceed 20 percent of the career clerks in the installation who work the window. This means that in offices with fewer than three career window clerks, management may not assign any PSEs to work the window.
We must work together to enforce restrictions on the use of PSEs. Enforcing contractual provisions on this issue will protect jobs for career employees and help force management to convert PSEs to career.
Let’s work together to make it happen!
Source: APWU Clerk Division