02/11/2019 - Consistent with the requirements of the Wounded Warriors Federal Leave Act of 2015, the Postal Service allows veteran employees who meet the eligibility requirements to take Wounded Warrior Leave. This is a specific type of leave, which provides veteran employees with no loss in pay, for undergoing medical treatment for a service-related disability rated at 30% or more.

DEFINITIONS

Wounded Warrior Leave is an authorized absence from the Postal Service to undergo medical treatment for a service-connected disability rated at 30 % or more.  It is a separate leave category, distinct from Sick Leave.

Treatment is an in-person visit to a health care provider, as specified in Section 513.364 of the Employees Labor Relations Manual (ELM), and includes the course of action prescribed by a health care provider. Treatment includes but is not limited to examination for and evaluations of the health condition that caused the disability rating.

Health Care Provider is the employee’s attending physician or other attending practitioner as recognized by ELM 515.2

Twelve- Month Eligibility Period is defined as the continuous 12-month period that begins on the first day of employment during which an eligible veteran can use Wounded Warrior Leave. For employees on the rolls and non-career employees on a required break in service (five days a appropriate) on November 4, 2016, the 12-month period begins November 5, 2016.

01/11/2019 - On January 10, APWU officers and members joined hundreds of furloughed federal government employees, labor leaders, congressional representatives and other allies on the steps of the “House of Labor,” the AFL-CIO, to demand an end to the government shut down and resulting “lockout” of 800,000 federal employees.

American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) National President J. David Cox clarified, “I’d like to make sure that everyone knows that this effort and extortion is more of a lockout than a shutdown.”

“We’re either locked out of our jobs, or we’re locked into our jobs without pay,” Cox continued. “It’s even more of an accurate description that I would say it’s a shakedown, brothers and sisters…what’s being held hostage? Our tax dollars are being held hostage. The government programs we’ve all paid for are being held hostage. Our members jobs and paychecks are being held hostage.”

12/20/2018 - The 2019 new leave year begins and ends as indicated below:

Begins: PP 02-2019, Jan 5, 2019

Ends: PP 01-2020, Jan 3, 2020

Click here for the 2019 Pay & Holiday Calendar. Click here for the 2019 Leave Chart.

12/04/2018 - If the White House Task Force on the Postal Service’s report was assigned a ZIP Code it would be 00000. This poorly conceived report makes many of its recommendations based on myth and misinformation that instead of improving mail services, would deliver higher prices and less service for the public.

The facts are: The public Postal Service serves each and every person. According to recent surveys by Gallup and the Pew Research Center, it enjoys the highest level of satisfaction and trust of any government service or agency. The United States has the lowest postage rates in the industrialized world. USPS doesn’t take a penny in tax dollars and under the universal service mandate delivers to 157 million addresses six days a week at affordable prices.

This report calls for slashing universal service. Recommendations would slow down service, reduce delivery days and privatize large portions of the public Postal Service. Most of the report’s recommendations, if implemented, would hurt business and individuals alike.

No institution is better suited for the ecommerce revolution than the USPS. This is why some on Wall Street and their enablers on this task force want to position the Postal Service for sale to private interests. The recommendations of the task force are not in the public interest. Our union will continue to strongly advocate for a robust public Postal Service and the rights of the hundreds of thousands of dedicated public servants who move the mail every day.