9/8/26 – The NALC and the Postal Service have agreed to a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) Re: Monetization of Annual Leave (M-02019) in which career employees covered under the NALC agreement may sell back up to 80 hours of annual leave prior to the beginning of the leave year. To qualify for annual leave monetization, employees must meet two criteria: They must be at the maximum annual leave carryover limit at the start of the leave year and must have used fewer than 75 hours of sick leave in the previous leave year.
In addition, the national parties have agreed to a MOU Re: Annual Leave Carryover for Leave Year 2027 (M-02020), which increases the maximum allowable annual leave carryover amounts outlined in the Employee and Labor Relations Manual (ELM). For Leave Year 2027, regular workforce career employees covered by the USPS-NALC National Agreement may carry over 520 hours of accumulated annual leave from Leave Year 2026 to Leave Year 2027. The memorandum, which does not change the provisions in the ELM for payment of accumulated leave, will expire with the conclusion of the 2027 leave year.
Also, in a letter dated Sept. 3, 2026 (M-02021), USPS and NALC have renewed the bidding procedures outlined in Article 12.3.A of the National Agreement, effective May 23, 2026. This renewal allows city letter carriers to continue bidding on, and subsequently be awarded, vacant job assignments during the ongoing contract negotiations and in the event the parties come to an impasse and proceed to interest arbitration. Successful bids following May 23, 2026, will count toward the maximum bids established in the next National Agreement.
NALC and USPS have also resolved two issues pending at the national-level interpretive step. The parties have reached an agreement on a national-level grievance regarding the Postal Service’s Heat Illness Prevention Program (M-02017), and the Postal Service has withdrawn a request for an interpretive review of a national-level dispute (M-02018) regarding the filing of PS Form 1767 and remedies for rights not bargained for in the contract. Grievances held pending the outcome of these national cases will be processed in accordance with Article 15 of the National Agreement.
All five documents can be found in NALC’s Materials Reference System (MRS) on the NALC website at nalc.org/mrs.
Where’s the contract updates? Here we go again with secrecy from Tulino and his buddy Renfroe, but actually it’s Renfroe’s responsibility to keep people informed, and it should be public information and not members only. The USPS is most likely dragging this out again and using whatever tactics they can muster to stall. The NALC should be going public and calling them out, but never does and that is why change is in the wind. The NALC will tell the members that retired with no contract that OPM will recalculate their pensions, but OPM just hasn’t gotten around to that for the last group and probably the ones before that either. This saves the USPS money, and lots of it because they’ll say it’s only going to bump your pension up a little, but it also bumps up your survivor benefit and your life insurance. The bottom line is you earned it and deserve it and the USPS is going to screw you out of it while the NALC does nothing. The NALC has no control over OPM and the USPS doesn’t either, so don’t believe what your told. Do not retire under a no contract time frame if you want your full retirement, full survivor benefit, and full life insurance benefit.