DACA Codes and Free Saturdays

[Postaltexan]

In a directive issued by the USPS on 3 March 2004, a change was made in the long-standing and widely accepted practice of permitting “X”, “O”, and "Z" days to qualify a carrier for a free Saturday(s). According to the directive, effective pay period 06-04, the following rural DACA codes will not break the continuity for a “free Saturday” on a “J” or “H” route:

        Annual Leave, DACA code A
     
        Sick Leave, DACA code S
     
        Donated Leave, DACA code D
 
        Court Leave, DACA code 6 (new code)
         
        Holiday Leave, DACA code H

The use of any other DACA codes during a period of leave will break the continuity of the leave and therefore disqualify the carrier for a “free Saturday.”

[MailmanRC]

If you are an H route be sure to take your annual in the same pay period or you will lose one of the free Saturdays.  My annual was for 9 days but the last two days were on the next pay period and supposedly I must use another day of annual!

[RC005]

Do you have to take off a full week in order to get the 'free Saturday' ?

[MailmanRC]

On the left side bar go to General Info once there go about halfway down and you'll see the information on free Saturdays.

[...]

it doesnt matter what if the sat fall in different pay periods, who ever put in you info must of entered it wrong ,

[...]

it doesnt matter what if the sat fall in different pay periods, who ever put in you info must of entered it wrong ,

[MailmanRC]

Please explain in detail.  PM told this carrier that pay would only be allowed for one Sat. not both.

[...]

Q: I have previously read in the national magazine that Regular Carriers sometimes qualify for a "Free Saturday." Are there any circumstances in which an RCA could have a "Free Saturday"?

    A: Yes. The approved absence on a Saturday of a Regular Rural Carrier, Substitute Rural Carrier, or Rural Carrier Associate in a leave earning capacity, which occurs within or at the beginning or end of a period of annual or sick leave, shall be without charge to such leave or loss of compensation provided certain conditions are met. This applies to leave replacements who have the designations 72, 74, 77 or 79. For additional information, you should carefully read the below referenced article of our National Agreement. (Reference: National Agreement, Article 10.4.A., 10.5 & 10.6)

   1.

      In order to qualify for a free Saturday, an "H" Route or "J" Route carrier must request 6 consecutive days of chargeable leave.    A "J" day is not considered a chargeable leave day and if the carrier's leave request includes a "J" day in the middle of 6 days of A/L or S/L, the continuity of leave would be broken, and there would be no "free Saturday". (Example:  AJAAAAA - 6 days of leave will be charged to the carrier.)  
   2.

      If the free Saturday in question happens to be part of the next pay period, the system will still give the credit for the free Saturday as long as the timecards are appropriately marked for the pay periods involved

[...]

i asked and was told that they have to go to the next sat in the next pay period and put the leave in while entering the full week off , and the system will adjust to give the free sat, there  may be other way s to do it , but thats how i was told its done in this area

[mailmom47]

I took my annual from sat to sat in 2nd week of pay period, my J day is monday of that same week, they charged me the full 6 annual days saying that my J day is a break in the week, from the info I pulled off this site that is not true, but people at TACS saying thats what it is and even a H day is a break, that TACS is automatic and if I had the free saturday coming the program would not have charged me and I do not get the annnual day back, could some one please help as I am ready for stress leave over this one

[manOman]

mailmom, PT has the scoop on Free Saturdays under GENERAL INFO over there on the left of this board. Here's a clip from that:


  1.     In order to qualify for a free Saturday, an "H" Route or "J" Route carrier must request 6 consecutive days of chargeable leave.    A "J" day is not considered a chargeable leave day and if the carrier's leave request includes a "J" day in the middle of 6 days of A/L or S/L, the continuity of leave would be broken, and there would be no "free Saturday". (Example:  AJAAAAA - 6 days of leave will be charged to the carrier.) 


So, it looks like you're out that extra day of annual leave, unless I'm reading that wrong. Sorry.