Effective September 4, 2014, the Postal Service™ is revising Handbook EL-312, Employment and Placement, section 743.22, regarding the area of consideration for nonbargaining vacancies posted externally:
n A subheading has been added to section 743.22. It is now 743.221, General, and includes minor editorial changes.
n New section 743.221, Limiting External Area of Consideration, has been added. This section allows the area of consideration for postings of career nonbargaining vacancies grade EAS-18 and below to be limited to current non-career postal employees and preference-eligible persons other than current career postal employees.
n New section 743.222, Alternate Arrangements for Veterans and Persons Entitled to Veterans’ Preference, has been added. This section states that alternative arrangements to apply may be made for veterans’ preference eligible persons and non-career employees performing military service who want to apply, but are unable to apply using www.usps.com.
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Handbook EL-312, Employment and Placement
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7 Assignment, Reassignment, and Promotion
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74 EAS Positions
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743 Selection Process
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743.22 Competitive Recruitment Source
[Move current text from 743.22 to new section 743.221 and revise the text to read as follows:]
743.221 General
When you fill a nonbargaining vacancy externally and do not use a noncompetitive recruitment source, then you must post the vacancy on http://www.usps.com for a minimum of 5 business days to ensure adequate public notice (see 42). You may use additional recruitment activities to attract a diverse mix of qualified applicants for the vacancy’s specialty.
[Add new section 743.222 to read as follows:]
743.222 Limiting External Area of Consideration
The external area of consideration for postings of career nonbargaining vacancies grade EAS-18 and below may be limited to:
a. Current non-career postal employees; and
b. Preference eligible persons other than current career postal employees, who are not eligible to apply to external postings.
When limiting the area of consideration, the vacancy announcement must include the following statement: Eligibility to apply is limited to current non-career postal employees and persons entitled to veterans’ preference. Current career postal employees are not eligible to apply.
Human Resources personnel are responsible for determining the eligibility of individual applicants and justifying any rejection based on the eligibility statement.
[Add new section 743.223 to read as follows:]
743.223 Alternate Arrangements for Veterans and Persons Entitled to Veterans’ Preference
You may make alternate arrangements to apply for:
a. Veterans’ preference eligible persons; and
b. Non-career employees performing military service who want to apply but are unable to apply using
http://www.usps.com.
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We will incorporate these revisions into the next online update of Handbook EL-312, Employment and Placement, which is available on the Postal Service PolicyNet website:
n Go to http://blue.usps.gov.
n Under “Essential Links” in the left-hand column, click PolicyNet.
n Click HBKs.
The direct URL for the Postal Service PolicyNet website is http://blue.usps.gov/cpim.
— Human Resources (HQ),
Employee Resource Management, 9-4-14
