On aux route, having issues getting updated to leave earning status and need help

[asher78]

I don't know if anyone even CAN help at this point. I'm afraid I've exhausted all of my options.

Moved from holding down a regular route to aux route Nov. 11. PM told I'd go to leave earning status Feb. 10. A few weeks came and went and I didn't get a form 50 or any update which I know is not normal. I checked my eOPF daily. I said something to postmaster about it last week (28th) and union steward heard me and talked to him about it. While I was out delivering that day, he checked on it and saw that he'd put the wrong EIN number in for me so he corrected it and resubmitted. It's been a week tomorrow since that happened and still nothing. I do realize it could take a little time, but I called HR yesterday (as steward suggested) and they have absolutely nothing on file at this point. I called my boss yesterday letting him know and he got very defensive (I didn't accuse him of lying, but requested he review it to make sure it went through.) and basically said there's nothing else he can do and all we can do is wait.

Normally I would not care quite as much about the delay, but time is of the essence because I need the leave time that has been accrued. I leave to see my son graduate from basic training on the 20th of this month. I cannot afford to miss a weeks pay nor be dinged LWOP for those days. PM knows this. Is there ANYTHING else that I can do at this point? Steward already asked if I could be paid for it anyway since it's his fault and not mine that this happened and he said if there's no leave assigned to me at that point, there's nothing he can do about it.

If anyone has help or input, I would greatly appreciate it. I've shed too many tears over this as it is and between that and mail count my stress level is at crazy high amounts. NOT going to see my boy is not an option. (It's taking so long because I'm taking his other siblings as well and I have to drive since financially flying is not an option.)

Thank you in advance if you got this far!

 

[Cliff Clavin]

You TOO!

My PM is doing the same S#!T to me. I filed a grievance and still haven't heard anything nor have I seen my form 50.

 

[asher78]

<blockquote class="spPostEmbedQuote"><strong>Cliff Clavin said </strong>
You TOO!

My PM is doing the same S#!T to me. I filed a grievance and still haven't heard anything nor have I seen my form 50.  </blockquote>
Grrr! I’m sorry to hear that! I don’t think my steward would even do a grievance for me at this point since she was in his office when he sent it through this last time. 

I hope yours goes through quick.

 

[btdtret]

asher78 --  Just some thoughts...

--  Were you holding down the regular route long enough to get into leave-earning status?

--  If so, did you get a Form 50 with the change of designation?

--  If you went directly from holding down the regular route to the AUX, then you should have gone from leave-earning status to another leave-earning status without a break.   Any earned annual and sick leave should have carried over.

--  Politely ask to see a print out of the corrected EIN.  If the PM saw the incorrect EIN, should be able to print out the corrected EIN ( IMHO )

--  You are correct about taking time.  Apparently the change has to go from your office to Shared Services to Eagan.  Plenty of opportunity to fall through the cracks along the way.

--  Time to make an appeal to manglement ( seeing as the situation is their fault ), regulars and RCA's in the office to help cover the AUX so you can attend the graduation.    You probably will have to bite the bullet on expenses by taking LWOP.  Or tell manglement you need time off due to the stress the situation has caused you, so you can attend EAP ( and or graduation ).

--  Could be facing major corrections in pay, annual and sick leave as Eagan must think you are still holding down the regular route.  Time to get the ADR REALLY involved.   Filing a grievance should include "being made whole" regarding starting date of the AUX.   

 

[asher78]

<blockquote class="spPostEmbedQuote">
<strong>btdtret said </strong>
asher78 --  Just some thoughts...

--  Were you holding down the regular route long enough to get into leave-earning status?

--  If so, did you get a Form 50 with the change of designation?

--  If you went directly from holding down the regular route to the AUX, then you should have gone from leave-earning status to another leave-earning status without a break.   Any earned annual and sick leave should have carried over.

--  Politely ask to see a print out of the corrected EIN.  If the PM saw the incorrect EIN, should be able to print out the corrected EIN ( IMHO )

--  You are correct about taking time.  Apparently the change has to go from your office to Shared Services to Eagan.  Plenty of opportunity to fall through the cracks along the way.

--  Time to make an appeal to manglement ( seeing as the situation is their fault ), regulars and RCA's in the office to help cover the AUX so you can attend the graduation.    You probably will have to bite the bullet on expenses by taking LWOP.  Or tell manglement you need time off due to the stress the situation has caused you, so you can attend EAP ( and or graduation ).

--  Could be facing major corrections in pay, annual and sick leave as Eagan must think you are still holding down the regular route.  Time to get the ADR REALLY involved.   Filing a grievance should include "being made whole" regarding starting date of the AUX.     

</blockquote>
Yes. I was on it for 2 years and 9 months.

I did get a form 50 stating that I was no longer in leave earning status.

They told me since I am a RCA and I was holding down a regular route for someone else on disability and then went to aux, that I had to go back off of leave earning and put in my 90 days probation again like I did when I moved to that route. Which made no sense to me at the time and still doesn't. I'm looking at my route going regular after the mail count and they say I'll have to do the 90 days probation AGAIN, too! My sick leave still shows on my check from that route, but I used up all of my annual from that time frame intentionally because they told me it would not roll over to my new route and they didn't know when I'd get paid for the excess so I'll just be receiving it now for the time period between Nov. and now.

He actually gave me a copy of the first form that he submitted with the incorrect EIN and the correct one. A knowledgeable coworker looked at it for me and said everything looks right, numbers wise, etc.

I will be going on this trip whether he covers me money wise or not. I put the slip in back in November or December and if he attempts to deny me now, he'll have a whole `nother grievance to be dealing with in addition to the one I'm getting ready to file.

I talked to my union steward today and she was wondering about pay adjustment, etc. if they could do that if it doesn't go through in time. She also talked to him about giving me a leave advance (wth? it's rightfully mine! lol but I get it has to be in the system. Still...) and he said since I'm not a regular, that's not possible. All I know is, if I had messed something up and he was potentially going to lose 2/3rd's of his pay check for it, I guarantee he'd be making a bigger stink out of it than I've made thus far!

 

[gotstamps]

Possibly the delay may be due to a million PS-50 forms being cut this week for the COLA raise? I'd give them till Friday, then file a grievance. It doesn't matter if a Union Rep "wants" to do a grievance... a carrier or sub can file a grievance on their own. No union approval is needed as they HAVE to handle the grievance. Lord knows I've had a few grievances that were not valid but were filed due to some carrier telling them to file. I still had to do the research & work to show them that it was invalid prior to withdrawing the grievance.

 

[btdtret]

asher78 -- Thanx for the additional info.

--  You held down a regular route for 2 years and 9 months.  Then got an AUX route.  

--  What are the dates involved?  The end of the hold down and the start of the AUX route.   If there was no break, that is leave-earning status to leave-earning status.  Did manglement make you take a break between the hold down and AUX?  If so, I'd mention that to the ADR.

--  What is the effective date on the Form 50 for the change in leave-earning status?

--  Did you get a lump sum pay out for the accumulated annual leave from the hold down route?

--  Apparently not!  " I used up all of my annual from that time frame intentionally because they told me it would not roll over to my new route and they didn’t know when I’d get paid for the excess so I’ll just be receiving it now for the time period between Nov. and now."  ( talk about some bum dope ( the info and the ones giving it!! ))

--  Page 47 of the contract lists the various Probationary Periods.

--  From the F-21 ( Time and Attendance handbook ) Section 581.11 Regular Rural Carriers -- Annual Leave -- a newly appointed regular rural carrier may not use annual leave until completion of 90 days ( 7 pay periods ) of continuous employment.   Conversion to regular rural carrier from a Designation 72 or 76 positions does not require a 90-day qualifying period.  Rural carrier associates ( Designation 789 ) have a 90-day qualifying period for leave.

" I put the slip in back in November or December.."

--  Have you gotten back a response yet?

--  Good luck with getting "advanced annual leave".  The only advanced leave I know is when regulars get a year's worth at the start of the first full pay period in January.  There is "advanced sick leave", but "advanced annual leave" -- any one??

 

[Cliff Clavin]

I filed the third week in Feb. Still haven't heard a thing. Steward knows about it but says they are too busy with count.

 

[asher78]

<blockquote class="spPostEmbedQuote"><strong>btdtret said </strong>
asher78 -- Thanx for the additional info.

--  You held down a regular route for 2 years and 9 months.  Then got an AUX route.  

--  What are the dates involved?  The end of the hold down and the start of the AUX route.   If there was no break, that is leave-earning status to leave-earning status.  Did manglement make you take a break between the hold down and AUX?  If so, I'd mention that to the ADR.

--  What is the effective date on the Form 50 for the change in leave-earning status?

--  Did you get a lump sum pay out for the accumulated annual leave from the hold down route?

--  Apparently not!  " I used up all of my annual from that time frame intentionally because they told me it would not roll over to my new route and they didn’t know when I’d get paid for the excess so I’ll just be receiving it now for the time period between Nov. and now."  ( talk about some bum dope ( the info and the ones giving it!! ))

--  Page 47 of the contract lists the various Probationary Periods.

--  From the F-21 ( Time and Attendance handbook ) Section 581.11 Regular Rural Carriers -- Annual Leave -- a newly appointed regular rural carrier may not use annual leave until completion of 90 days ( 7 pay periods ) of continuous employment.   Conversion to regular rural carrier from a Designation 72 or 76 positions does not require a 90-day qualifying period.  Rural carrier associates ( Designation 789 ) have a 90-day qualifying period for leave.

" I put the slip in back in November or December.."

--  Have you gotten back a response yet?

--  Good luck with getting "advanced annual leave".  The only advanced leave I know is when regulars get a year's worth at the start of the first full pay period in January.  There is "advanced sick leave", but "advanced annual leave" -- any one??  </blockquote>
I started the aux route the next working day after leaving the hold down. They told me I had to be removed from leave earning, but never explained why. I asked steward about it yesterday because I was told that never should have been done and she said she’d check in to it. 

Pm never tells us we’re approved. Only gives us a paper back if we’re not. He says if we haven’t gotten it back within three days, consider it approved. Just the way they’ve always done here.

Pm leaves on vacation Sunday for a week and I’ll be gone the week after that so if nothing has changed by morning, I’m filing. I told the steward today. Pm won’t even flipping call to check on it or anything as I’ve requested  so obviously doesn’t care a bit. I realize it’s mail count and they’re stressed, but this situation has me even more stressed than if I was JUST dealing with mail count. So...that’s that. Frustrating.

 

[trashistan]

I was in a similar situation with my old PM, and ended up calling HR and getting transferred to the rural Dept. I relayed the info to them and they then contacted the PM which apparently was no bueno, and the issue was resolved fairly quickly afterwards. The more people you can get badgering your boss the better.

 

[btdtret]

asher78 -- Get with the Assistant District Representative about filing grievance(s).   The usual 14-day time limit may not apply as you are just learning new information.

"I started the aux route the next working day after leaving the hold down."

--  There is a possible grievance right there.

--  Did you ever get a somewhat larger pay check after taking the AUX.   If so, that would be for any annual leave - but I think you mentioned using it up, or most of it.

"They told me I had to be removed from leave earning, but never explained why."

--  With out some reference, another possible grievance.

--  Sounds like you are due one or more Form 50's regarding you change of status - 1)  hold-down to the AUX, 2) change from leave-earning status ( at least according to manglement, and 3) starting on the AUX and back to leave-earning status.

--  From now on, be leery of any thing manglement says -- without a proper reference. 

"Pm never tells us we’re approved [ for leave ]. Only gives us a paper back if we’re not. He says if we haven’t gotten it back within three days, consider it approved. Just the way they’ve always done here.

--  I'd certainly hold manglement to that 3 day approval.  Better yet, politely ask for that policy in writing.  ( unfortunately, it might "disappear"! )

"Pm leaves on vacation Sunday for a week"

--  Most members of manglement do just that.  Count is stressful enough.  Plus they don't have to deal with corrects found during the carriers' 3-day period to check the numbers.

" this situation has me even more stressed than if I was JUST dealing with mail count."

--  Might as well give the Employee Assistance Program ( EAP ) a call.   800-327-4968   Although there may be a waiting list!  It's on the USPS's dime and time.