is the carrier in the wrong?

[lovingcarrying]

I have been an RCA for about 2 years. Recently I transferred and the office I am now with does things differently from where I was. I have a few questions I was hoping you could help me with. There is this carrier that will come in to work and then say she is sick and has to go home, this unfailingly has to do with the volume of mail on the route that day. I have been called in to carry this route and receive pay for the entire day. There are, however, other times when I am asked to carry a section of the route (usually about 1/3 of it) so she gets back by 4:30. When this occurs I only receive pay for my time/miles. Is this how it is supposed to be? The carrier tends to take an undue amount of time to complete her route on these days, it is felt by several carriers and RCAs in the office that she is doing it on purpose, maybe she is going home or something, since a partial piece of her route wouldn't take 4 hours to deliver, when her entire route only takes 4.5 hours to deliver. I feel she is not committed to doing her job properly, is there somewhere to find any of this out? Thanks for your time.

[lovingcarrying]

Oh I forgot to tmention that I have not been trained on this route, not even 1 hour. Is that imporrtant?

[lovingcarrying]

Ok, maybe I have let this get to me for too long. lol.  This carrier will come in and start working mail, and then say she has a headache and needs to go home. At least once a week she does this , and everyone knows she does it. Is there anything that can be done about this. She is retirement able, is there a way to force her to retire? I don't ask this for my benefit, since I am the newest RCA and will not recieve the route. Also, can I refuse to carry this route until I have been trained on it?

[Still Learning]

 It sounds like you have all ready done the route so there would be no training

[gjtrisa]

Although, it sounds very frustrating to be in this situation and I am certain you feel abused, we never know what a person's health is like or if she has an illness that only the supervisor or postmaster knows about.  If you were being paid by the carrier to come in a take part of the route and she was slipping you cash to carry the route then there would be a problem.  It is not our job to worry about the schedule or why it seems she is getting away with such antics, it is our job to do the best we can each time we are called or scheduled despite what a coworker is doing.

 

Hang in there because it won't last forever and you will come out looking better if you just smile and get through this than if you raise a stink and find out later that she has cancer or something else.  I always try to give my fellow workers the benefit of the doubt and hope in return they will do the same for me when it is needed.

 

In a message dated 01/06/09 07:45:17 Mountain Standard Time, [hidden email] writes:

I have been an RCA for about 2 years. Recently I transferred and the office I am now with does things differently from where I was. I have a few questions I was hoping you could help me with. There is this carrier that will come in to work and then say she is sick and has to go home, this unfailingly has to do with the volume of mail on the route that day. I have been called in to carry this route and receive pay for the entire day. There are, however, other times when I am asked to carry a section of the route (usually about 1/3 of it) so she gets back by 4:30. When this occurs I only receive pay for my time/miles. Is this how it is supposed to be? The carrier tends to take an undue amount of time to complete her route on these days, it is felt by several carriers and RCAs in the office that she is doing it on purpose, maybe she is going home or something, since a partial piece of her route wouldn't take 4 hours to deliver, when her entire route only takes 4.5 hours to deliver. I feel she is not committed to doing her job properly, is there somewhere to find any of this out? Thanks for your time.

 

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[....]

once you have been utilized on any part of a route , they consider u trained, but thats not to say that if they keep expecting you to fill in that they shouldnt finish your training on this route you are entitled to be trained properly .

as far as the other goes , the po wont let this go on forever , they wont keep paying aux asst  so she can get back in time, at some point they will cut this route, i know of another office this happened in , the rca finally had their fill of this person. their aux asst times got longer and longer , wouldnt answer their phones after a certain time in the morning once the pm had to carry the route the gig was up. as far as how they are paying you , they are correct, if they decide the carrier need aux asst then you only get paid for the hours you worked, with the minimum being 2 hrs ,

[idontlikerocks]

there can be an issue of pay here if this carrier is unable to finish her route because she is ill.   if you provide assistance on this route because the carrier goes home sick, and you deliver the last box on the route, then you are entitled to the full days evaluation for the route and the regular would recieve nothing.   if, however,  you are being asked to help out because the regular is slow, then you would receive the green card time.   This carrier may suffer from depression of some sort which can be triggered by a heavy work load.  it may seem unfair to you, but if this person really does get depressed than perhaps it is a blessing that you are not in her shoes.  as a sub it is part of your job to be available in these situations.

[VAX]

    You no longer have to be trained on a route to case or run it, only people who are trained in my office are newbies, and only 1 route, then you go everywhere and anywhere.
     If the PM lets carrier get away with this crap, he or she would get fired here, push carrier to the limits around here sub or reg.
    How do they justify aux assistance to a regular, not in this neck of the woods, dont finish route your on sick leave for the day and sub gets eval for the route!!

[....]

thats not true you are entitled up to 24 hrs of training on a full time route, they can put you on a route if they dont have another available sub, but they still need to give you proper training

[maddogdrake]

Number 1 you are entitled to the training, however since you have been doing it for a while with out training.. they can refuse it. However it wouldn't hurt to file a grievance. And if you carry part of the route and are called in to carry that only then you should get the whole day's pay. That is what the contract says. You need to file a grievance for that, too. I am lucky in my office when I was a sub the supervisor had been a rural carrier and a shop steward as well, so she knew the contract. Good luck. File a grievance...even if it is denied you will be establishing that you want the contract followed, and you could get what you ask for..the pay you deserve.

[Tired]

What can be done about this is to get other carriers request aux. assistance the same days she does. If they do not get it they are being discriminated against. If they do get it you will soon have a new postmaster because aux assistance on all routes will not go unnoticed. If she has problems on a regular basis they may need to adjust the route so she won't have any problem making dispatch.

[dthortx]

Know you contract and know your ps-603.  First and foremost...  if you plan on making a career as a rural carrier!

Articule 9.2.M.4 & 9.2.M.5

Articule 9.2.M  Training Pay

It states you are entitled to 1 Day (under 30 hours evaluation),2 Day (30 to 40 hours evaluation, 3 Day (40 hours or more evaluation) days of TRAINING if you are going to carry a route in which you were (key word) "INVOLUNTARILY" reassignement.  There is no wording whether this pertains to RCA's but it really does as regulars majority of the time their assignments are voluteered.  So if they are scheduling you (the RCA) and the route is a 41K or higher you are entitled to 3 days period. anything less is grievable.

If you (key word) "VOLUNTEER"  reassignment as in bid on a route.  Management does not have to give you the RCA training but Regulars will get 1 day of OTC familization training.  Most management should give a RCA one day but the contract does not state they have to.

These requirements outlined in handbook EL-701A, New Employee Training for Non-maintenance Employees