National Ass'n of Postal Sup'rs v. U.S. Postal Service

• Citation: 195 U.S.App.D.C. 242,602 F.2d 420
• Decision Date: 02 August 1979
• Docket Number: 77-1685 and 77-1690,Nos. 77-1684,s. 77-1684
• Parties: NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF POSTAL SUPERVISORS v. UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE et al., Appellants. NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF POSTMASTERS OF the UNITED STATES et al. v. UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE et al., Appellants. NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF POSTMASTERS OF the UNITED STATES et al., Appellants, v. UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE et al.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (District of Columbia)

Page 420

602 F.2d 420

195 U.S.App.D.C. 242

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF POSTAL SUPERVISORS v. UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE et al., Appellants.

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF POSTMASTERS OF the UNITED STATES et al. v. UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE et al., Appellants.

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF POSTMASTERS OF the UNITED STATES et

al., Appellants, v. UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE et al.

Nos. 77-1684, 77-1685 and 77-1690.

United States Court of Appeals,

District of Columbia Circuit.

Argued Sept. 14, 1978.

Decided June 14, 1979.

As Amended July 3, 1979.

Rehearing Denied Aug. 2, 1979.

Stephen E. Alpern, Atty., U. S. Postal Service, Washington, D. C., with whom Earl J. Silbert, U. S. Atty., John A. Terry and Stephen S. Cowen, Asst. U. S. Attys., Washington, D. C., were on the brief for appellants.

David C. Todd, Washington, D. C., with whom Linda Elizabeth Buck, Washington, D. C., was on the brief, for appellee National Ass'n of Postal Supervisors.

Isaac N. Groner, Washington, D. C., with whom Raymond D. Battocchi, and Neal M. Sher, Washington, D. C., were on the brief, for the appellee National Ass'n of Postmasters of the U. S. and National League of Postmasters of the U. S., appellants in No. 77-1690 and appellee in No. 77-1685.

Before WRIGHT, Chief Judge, and BAZELON and MacKINNON, Circuit Judges.

Opinion for the Court filed by Circuit Judge MacKINNON.

MacKINNON, Circuit Judge:

These consolidated cases are appeals from a district court judgment directing the United States Postal Service to provide immediate salary increases of 6% To 8% Per annum to certain management personnel and thereafter to maintain a salary differential of approximately 24% Between those personnel and the rank-and-file workers. The district court based its judgment on section 1004(a) of the Postal Reorganization Act, 39 U.S.C. § 101 Et seq., which requires the Postal Service to provide "adequate and reasonable" salary differentials between management personnel and the employees in the clerk and carrier grades. We believe that the district court's judgment intrudes into an area preserved for administrative discretion, and we consequently reverse and remand to the district court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

I

Appellants in Nos. 77-1684 and 77-1685 include the United States Postal Service, the Postmaster General, the Deputy Postmaster General, the Governors of the United States Postal Service sued individually, and the Board of Governors of the United States Postal Service sued as an entity (hereafter collectively referred to as "Postal Service"). ¹ The Postal Service argues that the district court lacked subject matter jurisdiction over the controversy, and, alternatively, that it exceeded its review authority in ordering specific salary increases and a fixed differential. The appellees are the National Association of Postal Supervisors ("Supervisors"), the National Association of Postmasters of the United States ("NAPUS"), and the National League of Postmasters of the United States ("Postmasters League") (hereafter collectively referred to as "Associations"). NAPUS and the Postmasters League are in the posture of appellants in No. 77-1690. They argue that the district court erred in excluding certain postmasters from the class of management personnel entitled to salary increases under its judgment. The Postal Service, as appellee, asserts that the district court was without authority to resolve this issue, and in any event correctly excluded the postmasters from the judgment.

The facts are largely undisputed, though elaborate. The following exposition is divided into an explanation of the relevant statutory provisions, the Postal Service's salary schedules, the events leading to this litigation, and the procedural history of the case.

A

In 1970 Congress enacted the Postal Reorganization Act (hereafter "Postal Act"), Pub.L.No. 91-375, 84 Stat. 719, which created the Postal Service as "an independent establishment of the executive branch of the Government," 39 U.S.C. § 201 (1976). The Postal Act delegated broad general powers to the new agency, See id. § 401, and exempted the Postal Service unless otherwise specified, from all federal laws "dealing with public or Federal contracts, property, works, officers, employees, budgets, or funds, including (the administrative procedure and judicial review provisions) of title 5," Id. § 410(a). Among the specific powers delegated to the Postal Service is the power to set the salaries of its employees:

(T)he Postal Service shall classify and fix the compensation and benefits of all officers and employees in the Postal Service. It shall be the policy of the Postal Service to maintain compensation and benefits for all officers and employees on a standard of comparability to the compensation and benefits paid for comparable levels of work in the private sector of the economy.

Id. § 1003(a); See id. § 101(c).

Under the Postal Act, the salaries of rank-and-file employees that is, those in the clerk and carrier grades are established through collective bargaining agreements negotiated between the Postal Service and duly recognized unions. Id. §§ 1202-1209. The recognition of these unions, and, unless otherwise indicated, the general course of relations between management and the rank-and-file employees, are governed by the rules and regulations of the National Labor Relations Board. Id. § 1209. Supervisory and other managerial personnel, by contrast, are expressly excluded from representation in any collective bargaining unit. Id. § 1202(1). These personnel have no right to collective bargaining with respect to wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment. Instead, the Postal Act provides that duly recognized associations of supervisory and other managerial personnel are "entitled to participate directly in the planning and development of pay policies and schedules, fringe benefit programs, and other programs relating to supervisory and other managerial employees." Id. § 1004(b). In addition, the Postal Act provides:

It shall be the policy of the Postal Service to provide compensation, working conditions, and career opportunities that will assure the attraction and retention of qualified and capable supervisory and other managerial personnel; To provide adequate and reasonable differentials in rates of pay between employees in the clerk and carrier grades in the line work force and supervisory and other managerial personnel; To establish and maintain continuously a program for all such personnel that reflects the essential importance of a well-trained and well-motivated force to improve the effectiveness of postal operations; and to promote the leadership status of such personnel with respect to rank-and-file employees, recognizing that the role of such personnel in primary level management is particularly vital to the process of converting general postal policies into successful postal operations.

Id. § 1004(a) (emphasis added).

B

As of March 1976 the Postal Service employed approximately 685,000 workers in approximately 2,800 different job categories. ² To meet its obligations to classify and fix the compensation and benefits of these employees, the Postal Service has developed salary schedules, four of which are relevant to this litigation. Each of the four schedules classifies postal employees according to grade, and these grades are usually further divided into steps.

First there is the Postal Service schedule (hereafter "PS schedule"), which covers virtually all the rank-and-file employees represented by labor organizations acting as collective bargaining agents. The PS schedule is based on a job ranking system originally established by the Postal Field Service Compensation Act of 1955, Pub.L.No. 84-68, tit. II, 69 Stat. 88, and it is continued through collective bargaining under the Postal Act. There are approximately 600,000 employees covered by the PS schedule, most of whom hold the grade PS-5.

Second there is the Postal Management schedule (hereafter "PMS schedule"), which covers supervisory employees classified in grades 1 through 16. These employees are excluded from representation in any collective bargaining unit, but many are members of the Supervisors association. The PMS schedule is based on a job ranking system recommended by the Postal Service's Job Evaluation Program and adopted by the Postal Service in 1973. ³ There are approximately 21,000 first-line supervisors covered by the PMS schedule, the vast majority of whom are in grade PMS-15. ⁴ Employees covered by this schedule, in addition to receiving general salary increases granted by the Postal Service, are eligible for periodic step increases within their grade.

Third there is the Postal Executive schedule (hereafter "PES schedule"), which covers supervisory and other managerial personnel in grades 17 through 42. With few exceptions, these employees are excluded from representation in any collective bargaining unit, though many are members of one of the Associations. The PES schedule, like the PMS schedule, is based on a job ranking system derived from the recommendations of the Job Evaluation Program. There are approximately 6,000 postmasters and 7,000 supervisors covered by the PES schedule. In addition to the general salary increases granted by the Postal Service, PES schedule employees are also eligible for annual increases by step.

Finally there is the Non-City Delivery schedule (hereafter "NCD schedule"), which covers all postmasters who oversee post offices that do not have city delivery services. These employees are excluded from any collective bargaining unit, but many are among the members of NAPUS or the Postmasters League. The NCD schedule was established in 1975 pursuant to the announcement of salary increases in issue here. ⁵ There are approximately 23,000 postmasters covered by the NCD schedule, the majority of whom are in grades NCD-12 and above. App. at 63. Owing to the...