Hours of Labor.
Employees in all branches of the federal government are required to work only eight hours a day. The hours, however, may not always be consecutive. Postal clerks, for instance, work usually in three shifts. The hours vary but the following may be taken as an example, allowing one hour for meals:
First shift, 10 A. M., until 7 P. M., second shift, 4 P. M., until 1 A. M.; third shift, 12 midnight until 9 A. M. If clerks are required to work overtime they are given compensatory time or leaves of absence during the week corresponding to the number of hours overtime. This also applies to Sunday work.
Carriers are not allowed to work overtime and when they do “demerits” are registered against them. While a carrier is at the call of the government, so to speak, more hours in a day than is a clerk, his hours of actual duty are the same, eight. They have “swings,” or periods of intermission, between deliveries when their time is their own and they are permitted to go where they please. Regular carriers make deliveries only, and are rarely, if ever, called upon to make collections.
Violations of the rules and inefficiency are punished by a system of “demerits” ranging from 1 to 500 according to the degree of the offense. “Demerits” in any considerable number naturally affect a man’s advancement. Anything less than 500 is usually wiped out at the end of a year and the offender starts again with a clean slate. But if 500 or more is charged up against a man it remains a constant reminder of past shortcomings.
Clerks and carriers who resign from the service may be reinstated within one year, but, unless their absence was due to illness, they lose a grade. In other words, they must work a year for $100 less salary than they received at time of resignation. In case of illness employees must notify the postmaster through their superintendent, without delay. Salaries are paid the 1st and 16th of each month.