Tag: lawyer services

(This article was first reported in the April 2018, Local Newsletter)
Written by: Robert Armentani, President of APWU, SJAL #0526

New Form of Intimidation
Local management has stooped to a new low in an effort to bully and intimidate their employees. During the recent snow storm that dumped up to a foot of snow in our area, many of our members were unable to make it to work because of the weather. Normally in these situations a request for administrative leave is made and, in the event that request is not approved, (which is 99% of the time), the employees are asked if they want to take emergency annual leave or have the it recorded as LWOP. Now management in many offices have taken the position that they are not paying anyone emergency annual leave because in their opinion the roads were clear and it was not an emergency. This withholding of an employee’s pay is nothing more than an attempt to bully them to come to work even during unsafe conditions. Obviously, the brilliant person that came up with this idea didn’t think things through. First and foremost, this will lead to numerous grievances being filed not only the improper decision not to pay our members but, on the harassment and intimidation they are subjecting our members to by unjustly withholding their pay. Secondly, I highly doubt that labor will allow any of these grievances to go to arbitration since the employees are only asking to use their own leave. It would cost thousands of dollars to send these cases forward. Now that they made the decision to not pay the employees they will have to spend thousands of dollars processing all the adjustments that will now need to be done. They must really think very little of their employees if they think this type of harassment will lead to employees traveling in unsafe conditions. The fact that they would attempt to force us to risk accident and injury is insulting and offensive.

I’ll bet they’ll wonder why the sick leave usage is through the roof during the next snow storm!!

EEOC Decision on NRP
The EEOC has issued a final decision regarding the National Reassessment Program and has upheld the decision that the NRP discriminated against injured workers. Current and former postal employees who were subjected to the USPS National Reassessment Process (NRP) between May 5, 2006 and July 1, 2011 can now file a timely claim with the Postal Service to seek monetary damages and other relief. Many of you have already received letters in the mail regarding your potential inclusion in this settlement. For more information regarding the decision and the process for filing a claim see the article on our National website: http://www.apwu.org/news/web-news-article/national-reassessment-program-discriminated-against-injured-workers

Sub-Contracting
It’s that time of year again when the landscaping work will need to be done. Every year we encounter several offices where we have custodial employees that sub-contract out this work. This is our work. If you allow management to sub-contract out this work and do not notify us then you are allowing them to give your work away. It is imperative that you make us aware immediately so we can address this with management have the work returned to our custodians.

Attorney
The Executive Board recently met with Brendan Lamanna, Esq. from the office of Zarwin-Baum-Devito to discuss representation of our Local and our membership. Their firm has been representing APWU members for many years. I first met one of their representatives, Lionel Prince, while I was working at the Philadelphia BMC. Brendan presented to us what the firm could offer our local and our membership and we have entered into a mutually beneficial relationship with them. Please see their add in this edition of the newsletter to see what services they have to offer.