From APWU
All APWU-represented employees covered by the 2006-2010 APWU-USPS collective bargaining agreement will be upgraded one pay level effective Feb. 16, 2008. The upgrades are being implemented via new pay schedules.
The new pay schedules reflect pay increases of approximately 2.6 percent from the old levels to the new ones. Generally, employees will move to the same step – for example, Grade 5 Step G employees will be promoted to Grade 6 Step G – and will carry their step waiting time with them. So, if a Grade 5 Step G employee was due an increase to Step H on March 15, 2008, the employee will still receive their step increase on March 15, 2008. Some upgrades – from Grade 3 to 4 and Grade 7 to 8 – will result in shorter . A special procedure – described below – applies to employees who were in Grade 9 as of Feb. 15, 2008.
Multi-Grade Promotions
The new schedule eliminates three old pay grades: Grades 1, 9, and 10 (as shown in this partial view of the new pay schedule).
Grade 1: As of Feb. 15, 2008, only a small number of employees were assigned to Grade 1. They will be promoted to the new Grade 3. The new schedule starts at Grade 3, which is the upgrade of the old Grade 2.
Grade 9: Approximately 250 employees who were in Grade 9 as of Feb. 15, 2008, will be promoted to the new Grade 10, which is the upgrade of the old Grade 11.
Grade 10: As of February 2008, there are no employees in Grade 10.
Employees in Grade 9 will not be promoted to the same step in Grade 10. Instead, they will be slotted by a two-step process. First, the Postal Service must identify the salary that would have been attained had Grade 9 been retained and upgraded to Grade 10 – an increase of approximately 2.6 percent. For example, a Grade 9, Step H employee would have attained a salary of $50,885 if he or she had been upgraded to Grade 10. Second, the Postal Service must identify the salary in the new Grade 10 that is closest to but not less than that amount. In this case, that would be new Grade 10 Step E, with a salary of $51,109. This is an increase of slightly more than 2.6 percent. Upon reaching the top step of Grade 10, the employee would realize the value of a multi-grade promotion.