NALC and the Postal Service have reached a settlement of a national level dispute over management’s responsibility to provide retirement counseling to letter carriers.  NALC had protested the discontinuance of the practice of providing in-person counseling to letter carriers on postal premises.  Instead, the Postal Service amended the Employee and Labor Relations Manual to provide that counseling would be conducted primarily by telephone with a retirement specialist at the Human Resources Shared Services Center (HRSSC).

The settlement provides that employee’s may request counseling on the clock, and that the local management will arrange reasonably private space for this purpose.  The employee’s spouse and/or advisor may be with the employee during this process.  In addition, employees who cannot begin or complete the process of obtaining counseling from HRSSC without assistance will be offered assistance by local management.

This settlement does not affect the national level dispute over management’s failure to provide timely retirement counseling to employees eligible for Voluntary Early Retirement.  That dispute remains pending. M-01708.pdf

source: NALC