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GUIDELINES FOR
PROCESSING VOLUNTARY EARLY
RETIREMENT FOR MAIL
HANDLER CRAFT
Guidelines in PDF format
I.
VOLUNTARY
EARLY RETIREMENT (VER)
The Postal
Service has received approval from the Office of Personnel Management
under its Voluntary Early Retirement Authority to offer VER to career
employees who occupy positions in the mail handler craft (see Attachment
L). Eligible employees identified in Section II who elect to take
advantage of this VER offer will have a retirement effective date of
May 31, 2004.
II.
ELIGIBILITY/ANNUITY REQUIREMENTS
A.
Age and
Service Requirements
To be
eligible to retire under this VER offer, the employee must meet one of the
following age and service requirements:
Age is at
least… and Creditable Service* is at least…
50 as of May 1,
2004 20 or more years as of April 30, 2004
Any
Age 25 or more years as of
April 30, 2004
Note:
FERS employees eligible for a reduced or postponed minimum retirement age
(MRA)+10 retirement are eligible if they have at least 20 years of
creditable service* as of April 30, 2004.
*Creditable service requirement must include at least five years of
creditable civilian service (career
or non-career).
B.
Covered
Position Requirements
The employee occupies a
position in the mail handler craft (Attachment L) as of January 10, 2004,
that has been either identified as excess to the mission of the Postal
Service, or is a potential reassignment opportunity for an employee whose
position is being excessed.
C.
Excluded
Employees
Employees who do not
occupy a position in the mail handler craft are excluded from this VER
offer:
Because
of errors in personnel records, some employees may receive a Statement of
Interest (SOI) package in error, see Section IV. Conversely, some
employees may not have been identified as eligible due to a classification
error. Personnel offices must correct the erroneous employee data and
make a determination whether the employee meets the eligibility
requirements for this VER offer. If employees believe that they should
have received an SOI but did not, the personnel office must provide a copy
of the materials provided to eligible employees (see Attachments C, D, E,
and F) so long as the employee is in the M rate schedule.
III.
EMPLOYEE
IDENTIFICATION
A.
Printout
Career mail
handler employees covered by either the Civil Service Retirement System
(CSRS) or Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) (retirement plan
codes 1, 5, 8 or A) who meet the eligibility criteria in Section II.A have
been identified based on
current CMS data.
A listing of these eligible employees will be electronically transmitted
to all area and district HR managers, and managers, Personnel Services on
January 12, 2004.
B.
Employee
Notification
All employees identified
on the printout referenced above will be mailed a SOI package on January
15, 2004, at their address of record, informing them of their eligibility
for the VER offer. The package will be comprised of Attachments C and D,
an annuity estimate, and a return envelope. Any SOIs that cannot be
delivered will be returned to the employees’ work location where their
supervisor will hand deliver the SOI. Approximately 8,900 mail handler
employees have been identified as potentially eligible for this VER offer.
C.
Employee
Bulletin Board Notice
Attachment K is an
employee bulletin board notice that must be posted on all employee
bulletin boards during the period
January 15, 2004
through April 16, 2004, the end of the VER window period. Post the list
of covered positions (Attachment L) with Attachment K.
D.
SOI
Respondents List
Periodically, during the
SOI response period, SER will distribute the SOI respondents list to
facilitate the completion of RTR processing. The SOI respondents list
will be in the form of an MS Excel spreadsheet, and will include 3
worksheets. Worksheet 1 (Employee Details) is a list of employees
who submitted SOIs and are in covered positions/finance numbers.
Worksheet 2 (Ineligible) is a list of employees who are not
eligible for this VER offer because they are NOT in covered
positions/finance numbers. Summary (Worksheet 3) is a summary of
the Employee Details worksheet.
IV.
VERIFYING
ELIGIBILITY THROUGH THE RTR SYSTEM
Eligible
employees interested in taking advantage of the VER offer must submit
their SOI forms to Headquarters, Selection, Evaluation, and Recognition
(SER), postmarked no later than February 5, 2004. SER will verify that
the employees occupy positions covered by this VER offer.
Throughout the SOI response period, January 15, 2004 through February 5,
2004, SER will electronically forward, on a weekly basis or more often as
the volume dictates, the listings outlined above, in Section III.D, to
each manager, district HR managers with copies to area HR managers.
Personnel offices
are responsible for ensuring that employees meet the age and service
requirements for this VER offer as specified in Section 11/A of these
guidelines. You must remember that RTR determines what the record
should be, and if a retirement plan code error is found, a deeper review
is needed. An employee should NOT be declared ineligible due to RTR
results until after HQ Compensation is notified of the error and the
district is advised of appropriate action. Although our ultimate goal
is to have all employee records in RTR as soon as possible, ONLY THOSE
EMPLOYEES WHO SUBMIT AN SOI FORM must have their retirement plan codes and
retirement computation dates in CMS verified IMMEDIATELY through the RTR
system (See SOP2, Establishing an RTR Record).
Errors in
Retirement Computation Dates (RCD) must be corrected immediately in CMS
and a determination made as to whether the employee still meets the
creditable service requirement for this VER offer (see SOP 21,
Correcting Retirement Computation Date (RCD) Errors (NOA 882). Errors
in retirement plan code must be reported to HQ (see SOP19, Correcting
Retirement Plan Code Errors (NOA 008 and NOA 803). Employees must be
advised of any corrections made to their personnel records.
Personnel offices
are reminded that employees legally attain a given age on the day before
their birthday. (See Compensation Letter 92-020)
Under
this VER offer, employees must meet the eligibility requirements on or
before April 30, 2004, therefore based on the ‘birthday rule’, employees
whose 50TH birthday falls on
May 1, 2004, would be eligible for this VER offer.
V.
PROCESSING
VER REQUESTS
A.
District
Offices
After verification
through RTR that an employee meets the eligibility requirements,
personnel offices must coordinate with Operations to determine if a
maximum will be established for allowable retirements. Maximums can be
established for districts, finance numbers, occupations codes, or levels.
B. Responding to Employee SOI Requests
Personnel offices must
advise employees, in writing, concerning the status of their SOI
requests.
1.
VER
Eligible Employees
A VER offer
package will be prepared and mailed to eligible employees no later
than
April 2, 2004.
The VER offer package includes:
·
VER
Offer/Approval Letter (Attachment G)
·
Acknowledgement of Irrevocability of Voluntary Early Retirement Decision
(Attachment H)
·
Retirement
History screen print or the Retirement Plan Correction Report from RTR
·
Retirement
Application (SF 2801 for CSRS employees or SF 3107 for FERS employees)
Certain sections
of the VER offer letter must be completed prior to mailing.
2.
Approval/Disapproval Notice
After the close of the
VER window period, each employee who submitted an application for
retirement will be sent either an Approval Notice or a Disapproval
Notice. A VER eligible employee who occupies a covered position can be
disapproved only if the maximum number of allowable retirements has been
reached.
3.
Ineligible
Employees
Employees who do not meet
the eligibility requirements in Section II.A, or who are not in a covered
position, must be notified using Attachment I, VER Disapproval Letter
as soon as local personnel become aware of the information.
Ineligible employees identified by
Eagan
or OPM must NOT be returned to the rolls until HQ Compensation is
notified and instructions are provided. It is mandatory that Headquarters
be notified before any action is taken for these employees.
Ineligible employees could become eligible if the appropriate deposit or
redeposit is made to OPM.
Employees who will be eligible once the deposit or redeposit is completed
will be given a retirement effective date of the last day of the month in
which the paid-in-full statement is received from OPM.
C. Group Retirement Counseling Sessions
Because of the
potential interest in the VER offer, personnel offices must conduct a
series of group retirement counseling sessions during the VER window
period. Eligible employees, who are provided a VER offer letter, must be
notified of scheduled sessions at the time they are given their offer
letter. Employees must be encouraged to review the information provided
in their SOI package prior to attending the counseling sessions and to
bring their annuity estimates and RTR service history worksheets with them
when attending the sessions. These sessions must be structured along the
lines of that provided in EL-502, CSRS Retirement Guide, and include
information for FERS employees, including the reduction and
postponement options for MRA+10, FERS annuity supplement, etc.
During
these sessions, it must be emphasized that CSRS employees who retire under
this VER offer will have their annuities reduced by two percent (2%) for
each year (or one-sixth of one percent for each full month) they are under
the age of 55. This reduction also applies to the frozen CSRS component
for those employees who transferred to FERS. There is no reduction to the
FERS portion of the annuity for those who transferred, or to a FERS
annuity without a frozen CSRS component, regardless of the employee’s
age.
At a minimum, personnel offices must cover the eligibility requirements
for the VER offer, creditable service including civilian and military
service, reduction for early retirement, Social Security benefits
including the impact of the Windfall Elimination and Public Pension Offset
provisions, and the impact of Social Security benefits on CSRS Offset
employees, health and life insurance, thrift savings plan, and the process
for submitting retirement applications under the VER.
D.
Processing Retirement Applications
Upon receipt of a completed retirement application (SF 2801 for CSRS
employees or SF 3107 for FERS employees) and the Acknowledgement of
Irrevocability of Voluntary Early Retirement Decision (Attachment H),
personnel offices must follow the instructions and processing steps
outlined in SOP 42, Counseling for and Processing an Optional Retirement (NOA
302). Since the employee’s eligibility has already been determined
through the RTR system, personnel offices must begin with item 6 of SOP
42. Keep in mind that certain materials and information may have already
been provided to and/or received from the eligible employee and that the
employee’s retirement effective data has been
predetermined.
E. Processing Personnel Actions
See CMS Update 2003-39
(Attachment M) for instructions for processing personnel actions. For
this VER offer, the OPM Authority Number is 2004-008 and Approval Date is
July 9, 2003.
F.
Reporting
Requirements
WebCOINS will be used to
report VER information to OPM and senior management.
Each District must update
WebCOINS with employee VER notes data using the following schedule:
·
VER PACKAGE MAILED (EMP)
note by
April 12, 2004
i.
This note is
attached when the offer letter is sent to the employee. The subnote date
of 04/30/2004 box should be checked.
·
VER APPLICATION REC’D (EMP)
note by
May 21, 2004
i.
This note is
attached when the application for retirement is received back from the
employee and the employee will be allowed to retire. The subnote
PROCESSED box should be checked. If an employee withdraws an approved
application before COB on 4/16/2004, the WITHDRAWN box should be checked.
·
VER DISAPPROVED (EMP)
note by May 31, 2004
i.
This note is
attached when an application is received from an employee, but the number
of employees requesting the VER exceeds the maximum allowable number. The
subnote OPERATIONAL NEEDS box should be checked. For the unlikely event
that an application is received from an ineligible employee, the subnote
DID NOT MEET AGE/SERVICE REQUIREMENTS box should be checked.
Each District can also
optionally update WebCOINS with a job VER note as follows:
·
JOB OF VER APPROVED EMPL. (JOB)
note
i.
This note is
attached when the application for retirement is received back from the
employee and the employee will be allowed to retire. The subnote date of
04/30/2004 box should be checked. This will allow for tracking the
position of the VER employee after the employee retires.
Questions regarding
WebCOINS updating should be directed to your Area Complement Coordinator.
Each District must report
their VER allowable maximums to Area HR by March 31, 2004 using the
allowable max spreadsheet (Attachment N) provided in the original
guidelines dated January 7, 2004.
G.
Employees
on Active Military Duty
Employees who are on
active military duty will receive the SOI package at their address of
record. Some employees are stationed locally and will be able to
participate in this process as if they were in a pay status. Others will
not be able to participate because of their military obligations. When
these employees return to work, they must be notified of any VER offers
that would have covered them, and provide them 30 calendar days to accept
the offer. If they accept the offer, the VER effective date will be the
last day of the month of the offer acceptance.
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