d. Veterans' Employment

The Postal Service is one of the nation's largest employers of veterans and disabled veterans. In 2004 the Postal Service employed some 197,300 veterans. Of this group 66,220 received injuries while in uniform and, of that number, 17,103 were rated at 30 percent or more disabled.

e. Affirmative Employment Program

The Affirmative Employment Program (AEP) provides national guidance and administers the Affirmative Employment Plan of the Postal Service. In 2004 the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued Management Directive 715, which provided guidance and standards to federal agencies for establishing and maintaining effective affirmative programs of equal employment opportunity. A cross-functional team is defining and providing guidance to Headquarters and field units on the implementation of the new directive and the annual reporting requirement to the EEOC.

The Postal Service also accomplished the following AEP initiatives:

Each area office was provided with an integrated framework which emphasizes identifying and removing barriers and providing technical guidance to improve the AEP planning process to standardize the field specialist duties and responsibilities.

A Web-based software application was deployed for the creation and management of AEP plan reports. It provides a broad range of workforce analysis, plan generation, and plan management capabilities, reducing the time required to produce the annual reports to the EEOC by 70 percent.

1. Hispanic Program

Since the early 1970s, the Postal Service's Hispanic Program (HP) has developed programs to address the demands of the growing Hispanic community and its employees. In 2004 the HP: (1) provided guidance and direction to field Diversity Professionals; (2) facilitated the exchange of best practices through publications, training, and teleconferences; (3) developed national guidelines of the HP Specialist activities; (4) participated in national events; (5) identified in-language material requirements that helped manage relationships with Postal customers; and (6) provided services to communities with diverse needs.

2. National Women's Program

Since 1974, the Postal Service's National Women's Program (NWP) has provided workforce analyses, affirmative employment plan activities, and resources to ensure the full utilization of women in all aspects of employment, including hiring, retention, training, career development, and promotions.

Major accomplishments in 2004 included area diversity network teleconferences to strengthen NWP communications and share best practices, a Special Emphasis Programs education component with the new diversity professional training, and a NWP communications plan for diversity professionals to provide technical guidance on women's issues.

3. Special Emphasis Program

The Special Emphasis Program focused on recruitment, retention, and promotional opportunities for African Americans; American Indians and Alaskan Natives; Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders; people with disabilities; veterans, and disabled veterans. The Special Emphasis Program developed a multi-year strategic plan and conducted employee conferences for the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (Executive Order 13216). It also partnered with other agencies and the American Indian Council, a part of the Federal Executive Board, in outreach activities with American Indians.

3. Compensation and Benefits

a. Pay Comparability

1. Bargaining Unit Employees' Pay and Benefits

The average pay and benefits for career bargaining unit employees is $60,261 per year, excluding corporate-wide expenses which can not be attributed to individual employees.

In an attempt to achieve compensation rates comparable to those in the private sector, negotiations between the Postal Service and its unions continue to apply the principle of moderate restraint set forth in past interest arbitration awards for those units that have compensation that exceeds private sector levels.

2. Nonbargaining Unit Employees' Pay and Benefits

Pay for supervisors, postmasters, and other nonbargaining staff employees provides an adequate and reasonable differential between first-line supervisors and bargaining unit clerks and carriers and meets or exceeds comparability standards.