An RI-399 Arbitrator Ordered The Postal Service to return Allied Labor, Sweeping, and Manual Distribution Functions to the Mail Handlers Craft within fourteen days of the date of the award in accordance with the signed Ri-399 inventory that existed prior to the Postal Service improperly assigning the work to the clerk craft.

Portsmouth, NH Branch # 038 prevails in RI 399 Arbitration on LIPS Allied Duties.

In an RI-399 Arbitration Award issued on February 11, 2006, Arbitrator Charles T Schmidt, Jr. Ph. D. issued an award ruling that the Postal Service was wrong when they ignored a signed inventory and took away the sweeping and manual sortation duties from Mail Handlers in the Portsmouth, NH Processing and Distribution Center and assigned them to clerks.

The Arbitrator ordered the duties of sweeping, changing full containers, and manual sortation of 'soup' mail to be re-assigned to the Mail Handler craft in accordance with a signed inventory document that had pre-dated the installation of a two-tier LIPS (Linear Integrated Parcel Sorter) Machine. In the Facility.  The Facility had previously had a Single Tier LIPS Machine in which one Clerk had performed the keying and one Mail Handler had performed all allied duties, including manually throwing off some bundles of mail..  

When the Postal Service installed a two-tier LIPS machine, the Postal Service decided to change the duties of the crafts without bargaining with the Mail Handler craft.  The arbitrator upheld the validity of the signed Ri-399 Inventory document.

Congratulations to the great work of all the Union advocates, officers, and stewards whose hard work paid off in this case.