Employees

ELM REVISION

Work Clothes and Uniforms

Effective January 23, 2003, the Employee and Labor Relations Manual (ELM) is revised to reflect a change to a job title.

We will incorporate this revision into the next printed version of the ELM and also into the next update of the online version accessible on the Postal Service PolicyNet Web site at http://blue.usps.gov/cpim; click on Manuals.

Employee and Labor Relations Manual (ELM)

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9 Labor Relations

930 Work Clothes and Uniforms

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932 Uniform Requirements

932.1 Employees Required to Wear Uniforms and Work Clothes

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932.13 Work Clothes

This program is separate from the contract uniform program. It is for employees who are not presently eligible for uniforms or contract uniforms. Affected are certain mail handlers, maintenance employees, motor vehicle employees, and clerical employees involved full time in pouching and dispatching units, Parcel Post sorting units, bulk mail sacking operations, and ordinary paper sacking units:

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e. Assigned full time in the specified duty assignment:

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[Revise item e (29) to read as follows:]

(29) Maintenance support clerk.

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- Labor Relations Policies and Procedures,
Labor Relations, 1-23-03

DISCOUNTS

Magazine Subscriptions Online

Through March 1, 2003, Postal Service employees and customers are eligible to receive an additional 15 percent discount off all Magazine Mall, Inc., magazine subscriptions purchased through the Postal Service's Magazine Subscriptions Online Web site at www.usps.com/magazines. This new offering is made possible through a Postal Service affiliation with Magazine Mall, Inc.

The Postal Service's Magazine Subscriptions Online Web site offers access to thousands of magazines at savings of up to 85 percent off retail prices. Additionally, the service permits customers to purchase and renew existing subscriptions, shop on a family-friendly Web site, and make purchases within a secure shopping environment. The service will even match or beat lower magazine subscription prices found elsewhere!

To receive your additional 15 percent discount, enter discount code USPS24 when you are prompted for your "Promotional Coupon Offer" during checkout.

- Product Management-Flats,
Product Development, 1-23-03

NOTICE TO ALL EMPLOYEES

THRIFT SAVINGS PLAN FACT SHEET

Percentage returns released December 4, 2002, by the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board

*Rates of return for May (inception of S and I Funds) through December 2001.

Future performance of the funds will vary and may be significantly different from the returns shown above. See the Summary of the Thrift Savings Plan for detailed information about the funds and their investment risks. The monthly returns of the TSP Funds represent net earnings for the month after deduction of accrued administrative expenses and, except for the G Fund, after deduction of trading costs and accrued investment management fees as well. The returns for the four indexes shown do not include any of these deductions.

* Implemented May 2001.

Please post on bulletin boards. Discard/recycle all previous notices.

LEVEL 15-18 POST OFFICES

Safety and Health Inspections

Employee and Labor Relations Manual (ELM) 824.33, PC Installations With Less Than One Hundred Workyears, requires an annual safety and health inspection of main facilities, subordinate stations, and branches. Installation heads (IHs) in facilities without full-time safety personnel, or their management designee, act as the collateral duty facility safety coordinator (FSC) (ELM 813.32, Collateral Duty Facility Safety Coordinator).

In offices with fewer than 100 employees, the FSC should lead the inspection (ELM 824.422, Inspection Rules). In offices with 100 or more employees in the main facility, the servicing safety office should conduct the inspection. However, the IH must ensure that subordinate stations and branches with fewer than 100 employees conduct their inspections.

Note: Headquarters will not be conducting any mailings. You can find the inspection checklists and inspection instructions on the Postal Service Intranet. Go to http://blue.usps.gov and click on:

• Headquarters,

• Human Resources,

• Safety & Health,

• Safety Performance Management,

• Safety Resources, and then

• Safety Checklists.

For instructions, click on Annual Safety and Health Inspection Letter of Instruction. For the certification letter, click on Safety and Health Inspection Certification. Postmasters (PMs) or IHs in Level 15 through 18 Post Offices should contact their servicing safety office for technical or programmatic assistance.

The PMs/IHs, or their designees, must:

1. Complete a safety and health inspection using the checklist within 30 days of the date of this Postal Bulletin (1-23-03).

2. Post the inspection.

3. Ensure abatement of all deficiencies in accordance with the instructions.

4. Certify completion of the inspection to the servicing safety office.

- Safety Performance Management,
Employee Resource Management, 1-23-03

REMINDER

Post OSHA Injury and Illness Log

Installation/establishment heads should ensure that OSHA Form 300-A, Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses, is completed for calendar year 2002 and is signed by the facility manager. For information on completing the form, contact your local safety office. Post the form where employee notices are customarily posted by February 1, 2003. Keep the form posted until April 30, 2003. Sign and post the form even if no entries were made.

All documents (OSHA 300, OSHA 300-A, OSHA 301) must be retained in local files for 5 years. For each calendar year, keep the same calendar year documents together in a separate file folder. Complete the logs containing open cases at the end of any calendar year when a case is closed.

- Safety Performance Management,
Employee Resource Management, 1-23-03

Finance

CORRECTION - HANDBOOK F-1 REVISION

Automated Salary Advance Collection System

The article "Handbook F-1 Revision/Postmasters, Managers, Supervisors: Automated Salary Advance Collection System" in Postal Bulletin 22088 (10-31-02, pages 44-48), made several references to payroll adjustments for nongrievance workhours. The references should have been for payroll adjustments for nongrievance work or leave hours. The following revisions to the handbook are to correct this oversight.

We will incorporate these revisions into the next printed version of Handbook F-1 and into the next update of the online version accessible on the Postal Service PolicyNet Web site at http://blue.usps.gov/cpim; click on HBKs.

Handbook F-1, Post Office Accounting Procedures

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8 Accounting Service Center Activities

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82 Postal Service Employees

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822 Employee Compensation

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822.7 Resolving Salary Check Problems

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822.72 Interim Salary Payments

[Revise the title of 822.721 to read as follows:]

822.721 Payroll Work or Leave Hours Adjustments (Nongrievance)

[Revise 822.721(1) to read as follows:]

1> Arrange for an interim salary payment to the employee of not more than the net amount due when an employee is underpaid because of an error in the number of work or leave hours paid.

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822.722 Erroneous or Nonreceipt by Scheduled Date of Salary Check, and Grievances in Accordance With the National Agreements

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[Revise the heading in the second row of the table to read as follows:]

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822.73 Automated Salary Advance Collection System

[Revise the first paragraph of 822.73 to read as follows:]

Salary advance payments will be automatically offset in the pay period that the related payroll adjustment is processed. This automated process applies only to salary advances issued pending processing of a related nongrievance work or leave hours adjustment.

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Appendix A

Account Identifier Code and General Ledger Account Crosswalk

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[Revise the title of AIC 554 to read as follows:]

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- Revenue and Field Accounting,
Finance, 1-23-03

NOTICE AVAILABLE ONLINE

Notice 25, Postal Accounting Period Planning Schedule, Postal Fiscal Year 2003

Notce 25, Postal Accounting Period Planning Schedule, Postal Fiscal Year 2003, dated April 2002, is available online. Go to the Postal Service PolicyNet Web site at http://blue.usps.gov/cpim; click on Notices.

We will not print/distribute hard copies of Notice 25.

- Corporate Accounting,
Finance, 1-23-03

NOTICE

Annual Household Diary Study

The Postal Service's Household Diary Study (HDS), conducted since 1987, provides information about the contents of the mail sent and received by U.S. households. The Postal Service uses this information to help understand why and how customers use the mail. The results are used to:

• Forecast mail volume.

• Plan marketing strategies.

• Provide information for rate-setting purposes.

The HDS is administered at Headquarters by the Office of Demand Forecasting and Economic Analysis, Finance. NuStats, the HDS survey research firm contractor since July 1999, conducts the interviews and collects and analyzes the HDS data throughout the year.

HDS is a two-stage survey. Stage 1 is the Household Interview. NuStats sends an advance letter, signed by the postmaster general, to a representative sample of U.S. households. This letter emphasizes the importance of the HDS and asks for participation. These sample households are contacted either by telephone or in person and asked about the mail they send and receive, their adoption and use of various communications' technologies, their attitudes about mail service in general, and information relating to their household and personal demographics. Those respondent households are recruited to participate in HDS Stage 2.

Stage 2 is the Mail Diary. NuStats asks households that agree to participate in Stage 2 to record information about the mail they send and receive for a 7-day period from Monday to Sunday. Information recorded includes: number of mailpieces received and sent, industry mail source, mail characteristics, and attitudes regarding mail received. As an incentive for HDS Stage 2 participation, households are offered the options of receiving: $30, $30 to donate to the Lance Armstrong Foundation, or a roll of 100 First-Class Mail® stamps.

Data gathered in both HDS stages is available in a final report, "The Household Diary Study - Mail Use and Attitudes." The report is published in hard copy and as a free electronic file. Order forms for the latest HDS report may be obtained via the Postal Service Internet at www.usps.com/householddiary.

For additional information, contact either of the following individuals:

Malcolm Harris
Telephone: 202-268-3650
Fax: 202-268-6841
E-mail: mharris@email.usps.gov

Greg Dawson
Telephone: 202-268-7446
Fax: 202-268-6841
E-mail: gdawson2@email.usps.gov

- Office of Demand Forecasting and Economic Analysis, Finance, 1-23-03

REMINDER

International Reply Coupons

All stations, branches, and Post Offices must submit exchanged foreign-issued and U.S.-issued refunded international reply coupons (IRCs) accepted through December 31, 2002, to their servicing stamp distribution office (SDO) or stamp service center (SSC) before the close of Accounting Period 6 or Postal Quarter II, ending February 21, 2003.

Redemption rates are:

• Exchanged Foreign-Issued: 1-7-01 through 12-31-02

• Rate per Item: $0.80

Note: Reply coupons issued by foreign countries prior to January 1, 1975, are no longer redeemable at U.S. Post Offices.

• U.S.-Issued Refunded (purchase price less 1 cent): 1-7-01 through 12-31-02

• Rate per Item: $1.74

Note: This will be the last opportunity to submit U.S.-issued IRCs from 2001 or before that were refunded in calendar year 2002.

Section 426.9 of Handbook F-1, Post Office Accounting Procedures, contains specific instructions for stations, branches, and Post Offices for submitting exchanged foreign-issued and U.S.-issued refunded IRCs to their servicing SDO or SSC.

Section 437.34 of Handbook F-1 contains specific instructions for SDOs, and section 447.34 contains specific instructions for SSCs to account for returned IRCs and submission to the accounting service center (ASC).

SDOs and SSCs are to mail IRCs to the following address:

EAGAN ASC FINANCE BRANCH
FINANCIAL REPORTING
US POSTAL SERVICE
2825 LONE OAK PKWY
EAGAN MN 55121-9617

Handbook F-1 is available in printed form and online on the Postal Service PolicyNet Web site at http://blue.usps.gov/cpim; click on HBKs.

- Revenue and Field Accounting,
Finance, 1-23-03

Revenue Unit for Fiscal Year 2002

The revenue unit for Fiscal Year 2002 is $325.46. This is the average revenue for 1,000 pieces of originating mail and special service transactions. The revenue unit is used in the process of determining the proper cost ascertainment grouping (CAG) for Post Offices.

- Revenue and Field Accounting,
Finance, 1-23-03

International Mail

INTERNATIONAL MAIL SERVICES STAND-UP TALK

Your Window of Opportunity - Global Airmail Service

This is the second in a series of stand-up talks that managers should give to Retail Associates about international mail services. Other talks will appear in upcoming issues of the Postal Bulletin.

Global Airmail Service

This is the second in a series of stand-up talks about international mail services.

The objective of these talks is to understand and serve our international customers. Each year international customers generate more than $1.4 billion in revenue for the U.S. Postal Service - that is a sizeable contribution to the bottom line. Therefore, we want to be sure to keep our international customers satisfied and interested in our service selection. That is what this series is all about.

So, how do you keep your international customer satisfied and interested? By helping customers choose the right service for the right price. Just ask your customers these two questions:

• When do they need it there?

• How much do they want to pay?

If they say, "One to two weeks is fine, as long as the cost is reasonable," suggest Global AirmailTM service. For single pieces of mail, airmail is one of the most inexpensive ways, using air transportation, to send mailable items to virtually any country in the world. Global Airmail is designed to be delivered in 4 to 10 business days (letter-post in 4 to 7 business days, and parcel post in 4 to 10 business days), depending on origin and destination. Prices vary by weight and destination country.

There are two categories of Global Airmail service: Global Airmail letter-post (for letters), and Global Airmail parcel post (for packages).

Global Airmail letter-post delivers letters and printed matter from all locations to virtually every country in the world. Prices start at $0.50 for postal cards/postcards to Canada and $0.60 for 1-ounce letters to Canada. Prices vary by weight and destination. Customers can also purchase the following extra services for Global Airmail letter- post service:

• Certificates of mailing.

• Registered service.

• Recorded delivery - the international equivalent of domestic Certified Mail - to selected countries.

• Restricted delivery to certain countries as part of Return Receipt service for registered or recorded delivery items.

• International reply coupons.

Global Airmail parcel post is the best value for services using air transportation for mailing single pieces or small- volume shipments such as merchandise, books, circulars, catalogs, and other printed matter. Service is available from all locations to virtually every country in the world. Prices start at $13.00 for 1-pound mailings to Mexico and vary by weight and destination. Customers can also purchase the following extra services with Global Airmail parcel post service:

• Certificates of mailing.

• Insurance for loss, rifling, or damage to certain countries.

• Return Receipt service with insured parcels to certain countries.

• Restricted delivery to certain countries as part of the Return Receipt service.

By the way, parcel delivery into Europe has never been better. Service overall for on-time delivery is better than before, when national postal administrations delivered parcels. If customers say that they have had problems, you can tell them that changes have been made and that now the service performance is greatly improved.

Advise customers to be thorough in filling out address and customs labels. They should also check what is mailable from the U.S. and what is importable in destination countries. They can check on mailable items through web sites for the Department of Commerce at http://export.gov and for the World Customs Organization at www.wcoomd.org. Also, their recipients could check to see what is importable.

A Few Special Items

Please be sure to remind customers that most countries collect from the recipient an administrative fee to cover the costs of clearing the item through customs and for collecting duties and taxes in addition to the actual duties and taxes. This means that the recipient of the customer's item has to pay the costs of the fee and the duties and taxes to the delivery agent in order to receive delivery.

For example, listed below are the administrative fees for Global Airmail parcel post items for certain countries (as of November 29, 2002):

• United Kingdom: £6.50 British pounds ($10.11 USD).

• Canada: $5.00 Canadian dollars ($3.18 USD).

• Three countries in Europe (Malta, Sweden, and Switzerland): €17.00 Euros ($16.88 USD).

• Twenty countries in Europe (Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, San Marion, Spain, and Vatican City): €9.50 Euros ($9.44 USD).

Customers can learn all about Global Airmail service by visiting the Postal Service Web site at www.usps.com. Just click on Shipping, then Ship, then Global Delivery Services, then Go under either "Send Mail" or "Send Packages," and then Global Airmail.

Future talks will explore other services in detail. Global Priority Mail® service will be the subject of our next talk.

- International Marketing,
International Business, 1-23-03

Licensing

NOTICE

Heroes of 2001 Merchandise for Sale

Use of the Heroes of 2001 stamp image remains highly restricted. The Postal Service has been granted the right to use the image on limited merchandise, such as mugs, key chains, pins, and framed art, that has undergone product review by the Postal Service and the other rights holders: The Record (Bergen County, NJ) and the firefighters who are featured in the photograph.

These products may be used as giveaway items for employees and customers and for resale at Postal Service events.

You can order Heroes of 2001 products using authorized Postal Service purchasing methods from the following list of official licensees. Only the companies listed below have been authorized to use this restricted image within their grant of rights; therefore, purchase products only from the list of licensed vendors below.

If you have questions on pricing, quantity, or any other purchasing information, please contact the vendors listed below.

- Licensing,
Public Affairs and Communications, 1-23-03

UPDATE

USPS Official Licensed Product Manufacturers and Distributors

The following list contains all current USPS Official Licensed Product manufacturers and distributors. Changes and additions are in bold. Employees may use this information to purchase products for personal use or as premiums and giveaway items. These products are not for resale.

Products for Postal Service retail stores are available through the Official Licensed Retail Product (OLRP) program. For further information regarding the OLRP program, please contact your area or district retail manager.

USPS Promotional Products

USPS Corporate Apparel

Commercial Apparel and Jewelry

Posters and Enlargements

Toys and Games

Commercial Novelty

- Licensing, Public Affairs and Communications, 1-23-03