The NPMHU and the Postal Service have reached a pre-arbitration settlement on the interpretive dispute concerning payment to Mail Handler Assistants or MHAs for retroactive holidays during the first year of the 2016 National Agreement. The Case No. is Q16M-6Q-C 17583292.
The issue in this dispute was the effective date of the provisions of Articles 11 .1 and 11.3 of the National Agreement, as well as the subsection of the MOU on Mail Handler Assistant Employees governing Article 11 issues for MHAs. Together, these provisions guarantee that MHAs receive pay for up to six holidays per year, but there was a dispute concerning the beginning date for application of these provisions. As a result of this settlement, the parties have agreed that eligible MHAs will receive holiday pay for three (3) holidays during the first year of the 2016 National Agreement, which ended on May 20, 2017. Thus, current MHAs or Mail Handlers who were on the rolls as MHAs on Thanksgiving Day 2016, Christmas Day 2016, and/or New Year's Day 2017 will receive retroactive holiday pay for these holidays in accordance with Articles 11.1 and 11.3 of the 2016 National Agreement. Management had taken the position that the provisions of Article 11 only applied after ratification of the Agreement, which occurred in February 2017, and this settlement is a compromise of the parties' respective positions.
The payments owed will be made as soon as administratively practicable. Any cases being held on this issue at the Local or Regional level are resolved on the same basis.
