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.
“Subs.”
“Subs,” in the parlance of the postal service, are men taken from the regular eligible lists to act as substitute clerks and letter carriers. In every large office there is always a lot of emergency work due to sickness, or unusual demands. “Sub” clerks work on an average from six to nine months—the duration varies greatly in different offices—before receiving a permanent appointment, while “sub” carriers have to work from three to four years before they get a steady job. The collection of mail from street letter boxes is entrusted to “sub” carriers, regular carriers attending only to the delivery of mail. All “subs” receive thirty cents per hour and their salary averages from $50 to $60 per month.
Carriers’ Moral Responsibility.
Carriers are not allowed to put letters into their own pockets to carry them nor to throw away even the slightest piece of mail, however valueless and unimportant it may appear. He must return to the office everything that is undelivered, and after every trip must bring back his satchel and his key, and make his comprehensive written return in detail of the number and character of the pieces handled by him. Every piece of mail entrusted to him has its particular place and all must be arranged with system and order. He is forbidden under all circumstances to return to any person whatever letters deposited by them in the street mailing boxes from which he makes collections, but if the sender of the letter wishes it back, he must report to the postmaster through the head of his division, and the postmaster has exclusive discretion to return it to the writer.
CHAPTER IV.
WHERE AND HOW TO OBTAIN APPLICATION.
Examinations for the postal service usually are held in the fall, about the first Wednesday or Saturday in November of each year. Prospective applicants should write to the secretary of the civil service district in which they reside—a list of these will be found in the [chapter] under that heading—for the exact date and place of the mental test and the time when applications may be had. The blank, a copy of which is given elsewhere in this book, must be carefully and correctly filled and all questions must be answered. This requirement must not be overlooked, as to do so would mean the sending of the application back to the applicant for correction, thus causing loss of valuable time.