UPMA Leader
June 2023
LEARN MORENovember 22, 2019 transcript of From the Presidents Desk video message
Posted by Frank Augustosky on 11/22/19Greetings everyone!
Welcome to the November edition of From the President’s Desk.
As you may have noticed on our website and the information will be coming out in the next issue of the UPMA Leader which is going to print today, we received some great news regarding NPA and other benefit issues from Doug Tulino and the leadership team at Postal Service Headquarters last week. Today I am just going to cover the highlights and give you the information that is contained in the letter and as I said the letter is posted at unitedpma.org and a copy will be in the next issue of the Leader.
What I need each of you to understand is that these are items that I was able to come to an agreement on with Doug Tulino and the team at Headquarters because UPMA has made the decision that WE will continue to work within the system for improvements in NPA and PFP and other pay and salary issues. I have done this because your board has felt in the past and continues to feel that this is the right thing to do. Some of these items are items that we have been working for since UPMA was founded back in November of 2016 and which are just now coming to fruition. For now the things that I have come to an agreement on apply to Postmasters and also to Managers and EAS Professionals at Postal Service Headquarters and in the Area offices. If these same changes will be applied to other EAS employees in the field is still be worked out at the Headquarters level.
There are changes in the NPA arena that affect both Fiscal Years 2019 and 2020. For Fiscal Year 2019, the amounts of the PFP payouts based on which cell your office finished in for the composite score will be adjusted to reflect the amounts paid in FY 18 with the exception that the 1% lump sum payout for block 3 that we received approval on for FY 19 will be included. So instead of block 4 payout being 1.75% in FY 19, it will be 2% and each of the blocks higher than that will go up to the same levels as last year. Is this complete vindication for the hard work you are doing each and every day, no, but it is a step in the right direction! For Fiscal Year 2020, I am pleased to say that your composite score will now be based on 50% of the scorecard based on the corporate score and 50% on the score for your unit. I know that I have felt for years, as I know many of you have, that we wanted to have more of an impact on our score based on the work we were doing in our offices. This gives you that opportunity. While what you do each and every day does indeed impact the corporate score that impact is minimal and the unit score gives you more credit for what you do throughout the year.
In addition, there will be an improvement factor for the service indicators. Last year a similar process was put in place for total accidents and this benefited many offices, we were able to get this added in the service indicators for this year. These improvement factors can only benefit your score, they can never take anything away.
Another important change that does not have any bearing on NPA and PFP is the change to the leave earning for Full-time Postmasters and PTPM’s that were hired from the outside with a career appointment date on or after October 6, 2012. When they were hired, they were put into a lesser leave earning category than those individuals who were promoted from within. Effective January 4, 2020, these individuals will be granted the same leave earning status as all of the other Postmasters and PTPM’s in the organization. The tables outlining these changes are included in the letter from Mr. Tulino.
Speaking of January 4, 2020, we received word in the letter that there will be a 2.6% salary increase that will be applied on our salary ranges both on the minimum and maximum numbers for each level. There is also an increase that will be applied for the PTPO Postmasters, as well. This is definitely welcome news. In January of 2019 the percentage increase was only applied to the top of each range because of the significant increases to the minimum numbers that were realized as a result of the implementation of our July 2018 pay package. This year the changes will be applied on both ends of the ranges.
I know that there is still frustration in the field and at Headquarters and the Area offices regarding the NPA and PFP systems and there needs to be continued work in this area. As Mr. Tulino’s letter states, to that end, we will continue to address these issues and through our joint work teams we will continue to work to improve those areas that we can to make sure that the pay package we receive will be as beneficial to you, the members as possible.
On November 15th and 16th your national executive board met in St. Louis the site of our 2020 National Convention. In addition to the items covered in the Headquarters letter we discussed a report that was received from the outside parliamentarian who looked at all of our governing documents to give us an opinion on whether the process we used in 2019 for proposed changes to the Articles of Incorporation and the Bylaws was correct. What his report stated is that we did some things correctly and some things will need some tweaking. As a result, I have put together a committee of representatives from the executive board: Executive Vice President, Edmund Carley; National Secretary-Treasurer, Jim Maher and National Vice President Debbie Roach to take a thorough look at the report and come back to the executive board with some recommendations regarding a path forward. Once the executive board decides what that path will be, we will share it with the membership through the website and the Leader magazine, as well as having an open forum to discuss the changes on Sunday, February 23, 2020 at 7:30 PM before the start of our Legislative Summit. I share that information now so that those of you planning to attend the Summit can make arrangements to arrive in time to attend that open forum. Mr. Thomas Balch, the National Registered Parliamentarian that was used will be present at the meeting to answer any questions members may have. Mr. Balch was selected because of his extensive background in parliamentary procedure. He has been involved in helping to write up the changes that have been in the 10th and 11th editions of Roberts Rules of Order, newly revised and he is also currently assisting in the preparation of the 12th edition.
Once again, I want to thank you for taking the time to listen to this video or taking the time to read the transcript. I want to close by wishing each one of you a most Happy Thanksgiving and tell you that I will be praying that you are all able to make it through PEAK season as easily and efficiently as possible.
Daniel M. Heins
National President
United Postmasters and Managers of America
Welcome to the November edition of From the President’s Desk.
As you may have noticed on our website and the information will be coming out in the next issue of the UPMA Leader which is going to print today, we received some great news regarding NPA and other benefit issues from Doug Tulino and the leadership team at Postal Service Headquarters last week. Today I am just going to cover the highlights and give you the information that is contained in the letter and as I said the letter is posted at unitedpma.org and a copy will be in the next issue of the Leader.
What I need each of you to understand is that these are items that I was able to come to an agreement on with Doug Tulino and the team at Headquarters because UPMA has made the decision that WE will continue to work within the system for improvements in NPA and PFP and other pay and salary issues. I have done this because your board has felt in the past and continues to feel that this is the right thing to do. Some of these items are items that we have been working for since UPMA was founded back in November of 2016 and which are just now coming to fruition. For now the things that I have come to an agreement on apply to Postmasters and also to Managers and EAS Professionals at Postal Service Headquarters and in the Area offices. If these same changes will be applied to other EAS employees in the field is still be worked out at the Headquarters level.
There are changes in the NPA arena that affect both Fiscal Years 2019 and 2020. For Fiscal Year 2019, the amounts of the PFP payouts based on which cell your office finished in for the composite score will be adjusted to reflect the amounts paid in FY 18 with the exception that the 1% lump sum payout for block 3 that we received approval on for FY 19 will be included. So instead of block 4 payout being 1.75% in FY 19, it will be 2% and each of the blocks higher than that will go up to the same levels as last year. Is this complete vindication for the hard work you are doing each and every day, no, but it is a step in the right direction! For Fiscal Year 2020, I am pleased to say that your composite score will now be based on 50% of the scorecard based on the corporate score and 50% on the score for your unit. I know that I have felt for years, as I know many of you have, that we wanted to have more of an impact on our score based on the work we were doing in our offices. This gives you that opportunity. While what you do each and every day does indeed impact the corporate score that impact is minimal and the unit score gives you more credit for what you do throughout the year.
In addition, there will be an improvement factor for the service indicators. Last year a similar process was put in place for total accidents and this benefited many offices, we were able to get this added in the service indicators for this year. These improvement factors can only benefit your score, they can never take anything away.
Another important change that does not have any bearing on NPA and PFP is the change to the leave earning for Full-time Postmasters and PTPM’s that were hired from the outside with a career appointment date on or after October 6, 2012. When they were hired, they were put into a lesser leave earning category than those individuals who were promoted from within. Effective January 4, 2020, these individuals will be granted the same leave earning status as all of the other Postmasters and PTPM’s in the organization. The tables outlining these changes are included in the letter from Mr. Tulino.
Speaking of January 4, 2020, we received word in the letter that there will be a 2.6% salary increase that will be applied on our salary ranges both on the minimum and maximum numbers for each level. There is also an increase that will be applied for the PTPO Postmasters, as well. This is definitely welcome news. In January of 2019 the percentage increase was only applied to the top of each range because of the significant increases to the minimum numbers that were realized as a result of the implementation of our July 2018 pay package. This year the changes will be applied on both ends of the ranges.
I know that there is still frustration in the field and at Headquarters and the Area offices regarding the NPA and PFP systems and there needs to be continued work in this area. As Mr. Tulino’s letter states, to that end, we will continue to address these issues and through our joint work teams we will continue to work to improve those areas that we can to make sure that the pay package we receive will be as beneficial to you, the members as possible.
On November 15th and 16th your national executive board met in St. Louis the site of our 2020 National Convention. In addition to the items covered in the Headquarters letter we discussed a report that was received from the outside parliamentarian who looked at all of our governing documents to give us an opinion on whether the process we used in 2019 for proposed changes to the Articles of Incorporation and the Bylaws was correct. What his report stated is that we did some things correctly and some things will need some tweaking. As a result, I have put together a committee of representatives from the executive board: Executive Vice President, Edmund Carley; National Secretary-Treasurer, Jim Maher and National Vice President Debbie Roach to take a thorough look at the report and come back to the executive board with some recommendations regarding a path forward. Once the executive board decides what that path will be, we will share it with the membership through the website and the Leader magazine, as well as having an open forum to discuss the changes on Sunday, February 23, 2020 at 7:30 PM before the start of our Legislative Summit. I share that information now so that those of you planning to attend the Summit can make arrangements to arrive in time to attend that open forum. Mr. Thomas Balch, the National Registered Parliamentarian that was used will be present at the meeting to answer any questions members may have. Mr. Balch was selected because of his extensive background in parliamentary procedure. He has been involved in helping to write up the changes that have been in the 10th and 11th editions of Roberts Rules of Order, newly revised and he is also currently assisting in the preparation of the 12th edition.
Once again, I want to thank you for taking the time to listen to this video or taking the time to read the transcript. I want to close by wishing each one of you a most Happy Thanksgiving and tell you that I will be praying that you are all able to make it through PEAK season as easily and efficiently as possible.
Daniel M. Heins
National President
United Postmasters and Managers of America
