Postal Supervisor and Manager
Guilty as Charged

In a unique arbitration award, Arbitrator Bernice Fields ruled that a customer service supervisor and his manager violated the 1992 Joint Statement on Violence signed by the USPS and its major unions because the supervisor engaged in "threatening, bullying, intimidating, demeaning, and humiliating" behavior toward a letter carrier.

Deciding that both the supervisor and manager should be disciplined for violating the Joint Statement’s pledge to treat all employees "with dignity, respect, and fairness," the arbitrator ordered the USPS to suspend the supervisor for 90 days and have him submit to a "psychological fitness-for-duty" exam and to require the manager to make a public apology to the unit’s employees "for condoning by his silence" the supervisor’s abusive behavior.

Assigned to an unfamiliar route, the carrier found that he could not see well enough on a late December afternoon to safely continue with his deliveries. He called the post office to report his concerns, but only got a busy signal. As he returned to his vehicle, a customer approached him and demanded mail in the employee’s vehicle, but the carrier refused since he did not know the individual. The patron followed the carrier back to the station, where he complained to a customer service supervisor. The CSS then confronted the carrier at his work station, yelling and calling him a liar, and, according to several witnesses, generally acting "out of control." The National Association of Letter Carriers subsequently filed a grievance, contending that the supervisor’s abusive behavior toward employees, in the current incident as well as similar outbursts in the past, violated the "mutual respect" and "workplace dignity" assurances contained in the 1992 Joint Statement (which the USPS signed with its unions in 1992 after a discharged carrier shot up a Michigan post office, resulting in the loss of five lives). In the grievance, the union requested that the supervisor be disciplined, while USPS argued that he had not engaged in such abusive behavior that the Joint Statement was violated. The agency denied the grievance at all stages, and the NALC appealed to arbitration, seeking to have the supervisor removed.

Rejecting USPS’s contention that arbitrators have no authority under the parties’ bargaining agreement to order management to discipline supervisors, arbitrator Fields noted that the Joint Statement "amends the Postal Service’s exclusive right to discipline supervisory workers and delegates that right to neutral arbitrators only when supervisory workers violate the provisions" of the statement.

Observing that "violence in the workplace begins long before fists fly or lethal weapons extinguish lives," the arbitrator reasoned that "because the relationship between supervisor and employee is inherently unequal, an employee confronted by a supervisor with behavior that a reasonable person would find offensive, such as yelling, name-calling, profane, sarcastic, belittling, or other inappropriate language, is a victim of intimidation and bullying because the employee cannot act as though the assault came from an equal."

Stressing that "such behaviors constitute threats to an employee even if no direct threatening language is used," the arbitrator added that she found "very disturbing" the manager’s comments in defending the supervisor’s conduct—he testified that that type of exchange between supervisors and workers was "a common, everyday occurrence on the workroom floor." According to the arbitrator, "an atmosphere where a supervisor shouting abusive, demeaning, and humiliating comments to a worker is a common everyday occurrence is exactly the atmosphere the Joint Agreement was issued to eliminate." Finding that the supervisor’s denials of belligerent conduct were "not credible," the arbitrator also said that the manager "bears part of the responsibility" for condoning the supervisor’s behavior and failing to "promote and maintain an atmosphere of dignity and respect in his unit." Declaring that "bullies cannot exist unless the local employer tacitly permits or encourages bullying behavior," the arbitrator emphasized that "the superiors of a supervisor identified in a grievance may likewise be subject to the Joint Statement’s" disciplinary remedies.

(USPS and NALC, NALC Case No. GTS 2348, 11-1-00)