National Active And Retired Federal Employees Association: Fill & Download for Free

A friend dd. Not in that fashion, that is silly. But I belong to a the National Association for Active and Retired Federal Employees and this is in a very blue part of California. One of our board members told us how she loved Trump. This got some weird expressions. She is a very nice person and people like her before and after her revelation of being for Trump.

A mailman, or mail carrier, sorts and delivers mail to a particular route. Mail carrier jobs are available through the United States Postal Service. Mail carriers typically work full-time, 40-hour-per-week jobs and perform active duties such as driving, lifting and walking. Mail carriers who work for the USPS are represented by the National Association of Letter Carriers.The postman job includes the following responsibilitiesSorts mail according to streets and street numbers.Delivers mail along a regular route to private home and business establishments.The U.S. Postal service employed an estimated 524,200 postal employees, as of 2010. Unfortunately, due to declining revenue, there is a projected loss of 138,600 USPS jobs by 2020. Competition for the remaining jobs likely will be fierce, particularly because the pay tends to be high for because entry-level jobs do not require formal postsecondary education.Pay for NALC Mail Carriers: City Carrier Grade 1According to the National Association of Letter Carriers, a mail carrier earns a salary based on grade and step. There are two grades for mail carriers, and within each grade there are steps to complete, which involve working a certain number of weeks. Pay also differs depending on whether the carrier was hired before or after Jan. 12, 2013. Throughout step A, a worker beginning as a grade 1 mail carrier – hired prior to Jan. 12, 2013 – will earn $47,215 yearly, $23.61 hourly for part-time flexible employees and $22.70 for full-time/part-time regular employees. Step A lasts 96 weeks, at which time a grade 1 mail carrier moves to step B. Grade 1 contains fifteen steps, and in the last step, step O, a mail carrier earns a yearly salary of $59,859. Carriers hired after Jan. 12, 2013 start out making $36,814 annually and $17.70 hourly under Grade 1.Grade 2 Letter Carrier SalariesA letter carrier can be promoted from grade 1 to grade 2 after a year of satisfactory service. A grade 2 letter carrier – hired before Jan. 12, 2013 – starts at a salary of $49,201, $24.60 hourly for part-time flexible employees and $23.65 for full-time/part-time regular employees. Grade 2 carriers hired after Jan. 12, 2013 start out making $37,575 annually and $18.06 hourly. If a grade 1 postal worker successfully applies for a grade 2 position, she must still wait the necessary duration of time to move into the next step. However, carriers bidding from steps A, B and C who already earn a higher salary than the entry grade 2 salary will be reimbursed through a lump sum payment. It is wise for a postal worker to apply for a grade 2 position after his first year, as pay increases are greater and overtime wages are higher.Overtime Wages for Letter CarriersIn Grade 1, step A overtime is paid at $31.24 per hour and increases with each step. The step B overtime wage is $33.94 per hour, and step C is $34.99 per hour. If a postal worker remains in a grade 1 position and is promoted to the highest step, O, she will receive $40.04 per hour for overtime. In contrast, if a postal worker moves into a grade 2 letter carrier position, overtime starts out at $32.62 and increases to a maximum of $40.91.Benefits, Retirement and LeaveAccording to USPS, postal service employees receive overtime pay, night shift differentials, and premium payment for Sunday work. All postal service employees are enrolled in the Federal Employees Health Benefits program, and most health costs are covered by the postal service. USPS also provides retirement and disability coverage. In the first three years of full-time employment, postal workers are offered 13 days of sick leave. After three years, sick leave increases to 20 days per year.All full-time federal employees are covered by some type of retirement or pension plan. The type of retirement plan and the amount received varies dramatically on the agency and the job performed. Some federal employees, such as members of Congress, have extremely generous plans that can pay retirees almost as much as when they were working. Other federal employees, such as postal workers and others on the basic Federal Employees Retirement System annuity plan, can retire after 25 years and receive around 25 percent of their salary before retirement.United States Postal Service employee benefits include a choice of American Postal Worker Union health insurance plans and flexible spending accounts. Postal careers also offer federal employees group life insurance, a postal employees relief fund and retirement benefits. You do not have to be a member of the union to have access to APWU health insurance plans.Reference:The Average Pay of a Postal WorkerHow Much Does a Mailman Get Paid?How Much Do Postal Workers Get Paid When They Retire?US Postal Service Postman Hourly PayPostman Average Salary IncomePostal strike: a postman's pay and conditionsWage watchers: how much does a postman earn?Wage slaves

Thanks Sibin Nair for this questionMuthoot Finance has announced the closure of about 300 of it's branches in Kerala. Would you say trade unionism culture is really letting Kerala down since we have beem really struggling in creating jobs locally?Well, its a fact Muthoot Finance, one of the leading NBFC in Kerala is closing many of its branches in Kerala. The official reason cited is continuing protests by its employees affiliated to CITU for last 15 days.This has sparked a wave of Anti-Union posts on social media primarily due to the usual critical ones against Left parties for spoiling Kerala’s industrial growth. This question in Quora represents that ideology part.I wish to make a detailed understanding of context of both sides in detail. I am in the privy of some information related to Muthoot’s HR data but I don’t intend to disclose here as it isn’t in the public domain so far. So only quoting those in the public domain.Background of the companyMuthoot Finance (Red) is one of Kerala’s oldest NBFC (Non-Banking Financial Company) founded in 1887. At the time of the founding, it was involved in general trade mainly related to rice and pulses. The founder- Ninani Mathai was primarily a wholesaler in the town of Kozhencherry in Kingdom of Travancore.The nearby Kochi Kingdom’s finances was heavily based on Chits model and the government itself pioneered the concept of Chit funds as one of the official public saving models for the state since the 1850s. This has influenced many Christian families of Travancore to replicate the same business model in Travancore. Ninani Mathai founded Muthoot Chits in 1887 in an informal way as a way to increase public savings and increase a strong cash flow his trade activities.When his son- George Muthoot returned back after a stint in Army service, they formalized the chits funds into a company model, thus one of the first formal corporate Chit fund in 1925. They pioneered the concept of NBFC in Travancore or probably in South India as untill then chits and similar things were mostly done in an informal manner. Muthoot Chits slowly became Muthoot Finance in the year 1939 by diversifying into Gold chits as well as Gold loans.Why 1939? In the 1920s, Travancore was rapidly growing in the Banking sector and more than 50 banks rose into prominence, fuelling the economy, mostly started by the Christian community with heavy royal patronage of Regent Queen- H.H Sethu Lakshmi Bai. However, the power politics in the Palace led to frequent changes in monetary policies and lead to the collapse of many leading banks in Travancore since the 1930s. This lead to a huge financial crunch in the economy. Though this was a very challenging environment, for Muthoot, they saw a huge opportunity by initiating the concept of Gold Loan. Most of the middle-class Malayalees do have gold in their homes as Malayalees are heavily attached to the yellow metal. In times of distress, its often used to meet the ends. Untill 1939, most of the gold loans were handled by local goldsmiths and scrupulous moneylenders. There was no surety about the gold and its safety. Muthoot offered a secured-safe environment for those who want to pledge/mortgage gold which was its key selling point and was first among to offer such quality service.That business clicked and there was no looking back for Muthoot. Today Muthoot finance is India’s largest Gold Loan based NBFC and one of India’s super brand in NBFC sector. Muthoot Finance’s key business is Gold Loans and as per many estimates, its the world’s largest Gold loan focused NBFC with a revenue of more than Rs 30,000 crore (USD 5 Billion). Muthoot Finance holds more than 150 Tonnes of Gold in its kitty.Infact Kerala’s 3 brands (Muthoot-Red, Muthoot Blue and Manapuram) hold more than 47% of India’s Gold loan NBFC business and these companies hold Gold reserves more than the sovereign gold reserves of Australia, Sweden or Singapore. So essentially the bread and butter of these companies is Gold mortgages made by common manThe company rapidly grew in a period of time. Especially in 1970s when Gulf migration started and banks were nationalized in India. Most of the ordinary men who were scouting for a chance to migrate used to pledge/mortgage their family’s little gold at these NBFCs to raise money to obtain visas. As banks were nationalized, most of them became too bureaucratic and very hard for people in lower strata and middle class to secure small personal loans. Thus people had to depend on NBFCs like Muthoot despite of their higher interest rates and the shorter repayment period. The subsequent Gulf boom fuelled a huge growth of these kinds of NBFCs as everyone regularly needs money for various consumerist activities and gold loans became the easiest option. The gulf money fuelled more consumption of Gold and with more accumulated gold wealth, they convert themselves as an easy way to obtain short term loans. That time, to get a personal loan from a bank was almost getting a US Visa of today. So everyone went with these kinds of NBFCs.This pushed a rapid scale of expansion of Muthoot in 80s-90s. The Muthoot family got divided into three business groups and all these three were into these Gold loan business. However, the Red Muthoot became the largest and widespread operations. In a time frame of 20 years, they opened more than 900 branches just in Kerala which shows the scale of operations Muthoot had untill 2000s. Thousands or ten thousands of employees were recruited across various branches and Muthoot almost reached to its zenith.So whats exactly is the problemThe problem here is a very large section of its employees of Muthoot, especially in Mid and lower levels are heavily underpaid.Muthoot, like any Indian NBFC, doesn’t offer even a decent pay to its employees. Practically they don’t bother much on employee welfare or growth etc. Most of its employees are just meant to work for a few years and leave the organization. But even those who have decades of service are never paid according to their experience. And the company has no clear cut HR policies like Promotion policy, appraisal system, training development etc.But that was very much okay when it was operating as a pure single proprietorship entity in past. Muthoot over years became a corporate giant. And in 2008, it got listed in BSE and one of the forerunners among financial companies of India.But this change from a single proprietor entity to a listed company hasn’t been seen in its HR policies. That still remains old fashioned. The last pay revision came almost 15 years backSalary Slip of a Service Assistant (a term used for Customer relationship executive in Muthoot Finance). This person was working for 13 years in the company, yet his pay including all benefits is just 11,000 Rs, far below the official Minimum wage rate fixed by Kerala Govt. A labourer in street earns more than 700 Rs per day, but a white-collar executive earning less than 370 Rs per day.A news report that came recently how the majority of Muthoot employees in Kerala earns very low salaries… There are people who have 27 years work experience in Muthoot, earning just 17K (before all deductions).A Malayalam documentary how Muthoot Employees forced to strike with very low salary and how the employment conditions affected themThis poor pay structure has to lead many senior-long serving employees to feel frustrated. So as part of pushing a collective bargaining system, these employees formed a Union (Muthoot Finance Employees Union) affiliated to CITU to seek collective action.But that hasn’t gone well with Muthoot Management and repulsive action came against those people who formed a union. Last 2 years, they been into active talks with Management to resolve the issues, but nothing much seems to happen. Though they formed HR restructuring plans, it's yet to be implemented.This lead to the strike for the last 2 weeks.Why Muthoot is not implementing any HR restructuring plans?Two simple reasonsIts top management is still ruled by Muthoot family who still runs as an old-styled family enterprise rather than a corporate company with clear cut HR concepts or employee development etc.The biggest reason specific to Kerala- Muthoot sees no future in Kerala operations as it's the market share and revenue share is declining in Kerala Market. Why so?Rapid Growth of Banking activities in KeralaUnlike the growth in the 1990s, things came to a rapid halt since the 2000s. It was a period of increase in Private banks culture with the rise of ICICI, Axis Bank, Yes Bank, Kotak etc at the national level. At Kerala level, many coop banks became modernized and started aggressive expansion operations. This period also saw an extraordinary expansion of nationalized and private banks in Kerala.Kerala’s traditional banking majors- The Federal Bank, CSB, South Indian Bank and Dhanlaxmi also revamped its operations aggressively. For example, Federal Bank was literally on an expansion drive and by now, its one among top 10 Banks of India. South Indian Bank which was once so limited and conservative traditional bank, all of the sudden became a new-gen bank with massive Pan Kerala/South India expansion. So as CSB and Dhanlaxmi.In last 19 years, Kerala achieved an extraordinary banking penetration. Infact Kerala is India’s most banked state with a branch in every remote corner of the state. Its also India’s first Financial literate state nd the first state in India to achieve 91% financial inclusion rate and reaching 100% soon.Now this is the real threat which Muthoot facingUntill 2000s, most of the common man used to depend on Muthoot or similar NBFCs for personal loans. A common man who is in dire needs to pay hospital bills may think of pledging their golden chain or bangle in Muthoot for few days to get a loan. These NBFCs used to provide loan within 24 hours, unlike banks which used to take more than 3–5 working days.But with rapid changes in the banking sector, most of the Banks aggressively ventured into Gold loans. If anyone walks around any bank in Kerala, they always notice huge banners and posters highlighting Quick Gold Loan. Almost all banks have trained their employees in checking the quality of gold and issuing a personal loan. As opening a bank account became so quick these days (unlike huge formalities of 1990s), gold loans from banks became instant.A branch of CSB Bank where one can see the ads of Quick Gold loans highlighted prominently.Federal Bank offers many innovative schemes for faster Gold loans systemsAnd it's damn cheap too. Banks offer gold loans for 10–11% per annum contrary to Muthoot’s 12–26% per month/tenure basis. And the repayment flexibility is very high for banks. They offer upto 1 year and even extendable unlike Muthoot’s shorter period with heavy penalties.In short, most of these NBFCs in Kerala acquired a popular nickname- Blade Companies, due to their higher interest/processing rates which actually slices the financial capacity of people who got loans.This new option of faster, easier and cheaper gold loans thro’ banks and coops pushed Muthoot and similar NBFCs to lose its sheenRise of Competitive NBFCMuthoot Finance is also threatened by rise of many Gold Loan NBFC brands across Kerala. These entities which were once family enterprise also rose to prominence in the last 2 decades following Muthoot’s footsteps. Entities like Kosamattam, KLM Axiva and many such entities are widely expanding across Kerala and these have resulted in heavy competition and eating much of Muthoot’s traditional shareMany of other popular Gold Loan NBFC who are aggressively promoting themselves which has reduced Muthoot’s market base in KeralaRise of new quick finance options.Muthoot Gold loans lost its sheen in the last 2 decades primarily because of the rise of alternate quick loans concept. Be it in the form of credit cards, private personal loans, EMI oriented at-store purchase options like Bajaj Finance etc. This has reduced the demand for Gold Loans as gold is primarily an emotional asset and in most of the families, they prefer to save gold from the mortgage, if other options are available.Loss of other business streamsMuthoot Finance in last one decade tried to reduce the loss of revenue thro’ diversifying into other options like white label ATMs (Private ATMs), money transfer, foreign exchange, housing finance and similar.But none of these pushed their revenue in Kerala primarily because these options are plenty in the state. So essentially it didn’t work out much in favour of Muthoot’s new business options.All these factors reduced Muthoot’s Kerala profitability. The business of Muthoot sharply fell from 10% to 4% in the last 9 years. Remember in the 1990s, Kerala market contributed more than 60%+ for Muthoot group.So as Muthoot sharply expanded its base outside Kerala which has more opportunities today. For example, Muthoot is aggressively focused in NCR belt as much of the rural areas of UP/Haryana area have no much banking access. It's one key reason Muthoot now aggressively uses Amitab Bachan as its brand ambassador and sponsor Delhi based teams in various matches to make a strong connect locally.So as they are aggressively expanding in other markets of South particularly TN, Telangana, AP, Karnataka etc, especially the rural areas where banking penetration is low.Muthoot Finance’s new brand Ambassador- Amithab Bachan with aggressive Hindi ads and Hindi taglines focus the major shift of Muthoot Finance to focus primarily in North Indian markets, particularly the rural belt.Muthoot was the brand sponsor for IPL Delhi Daredevils untill recentlyMuthoot became title sponsors for IPL Chennai Super Kings primarily because of its fan base across South and Central India. Having a person like Dhoni as a brand ambassador helps to expand the brand so widely across India even in rural side.So as they became the title sponsors for Indian Kabbadi League because Kabbadi League was more watched in the rural side than urban areas.Coming to the current crisis in Kerala, I don’t think Muthoot is closing down its business because of trade union problems.Infact Muthoot has trade union only for last 2 years and not any major strike or lockouts. It's now only such a thing happened because of the extreme frustration of its employees.Muthoot Management seems to be playing well for an honourable exit from Kerala. They cannot simply close down the business or reduce business in Kerala overnight as it will affect their ratings as well as their share values in the stock exchange. That would send very wrong signals to the investors.It seems to me, they are using a traditional double game approach as done by textile mill owners to shift a factory by pushing existing employees to strike and appoint new employees who demand right to work, so as to create a clash environment and using that opportunity to project as unsustainable atmosphere for business conduct. This would save them from an image of exiting business due to lack of profitability.It's so evident that Muthoot representatives are refusing any sort of talks with the agitating unions or district labour officials. It's so unrealistic to say nearly 300 offices getting closed down just because of a 15-day strike.Its so suprising, Muthoot even refused to attend a meeting called by Kerala High Court’s Arbitration Council. When the employees did a strike in 2018 Dec, Muthoot group went to court to seek legal means to declare the strike illegal, which the court didn’t oblige. Instead, they referred to Arbitration Council to resolve the crisis and they called a meeting twice which Muthoot refused to participate. So as even a meeting called by State Labour Minister last day was ignored by the management and the meeting postponed to another date in the near future. And the crisis is still going on as no kind of legal deliberations happening between Management and striking employees.Muthoot protest: Truce meeting called by Minister fails as management fails to show upWhy scores of employees of Muthoot Finance in Kerala have risen in protestWhere Employees went wrong?I feel, there is a mistake from the side of employees too. While I don’t condemn their right to strike and their right for collective bargaining, they did a major mistake by forming a union affiliated to a political trade union. Political trade unions work better in organized sector and in the government sector. In a private establishment where the employment engagement is primarily based on hire-fire mode with no permanent job security system, a political oriented trade union makes little effective.The more grave situation is politicization of employees concerns.While employees have a serious set of concerns and issues which they need to get redressed thro’ collective action, by associating with CITU, they almost got a political color. The opponents of CPM in Kerala have heavily used this incident to attack the government and the party to project it as Anti-Industrial etc. If we look social media pages, most of the right-wingers in Kerala are highlighting this matter to such a large extent to taint their political rivals - the left party (which is natural in politics) In short, the topic is now discussed more as an ANTI-LEFT POLITICS rhetorics than a serious HR issue faced by its employees.Screenshots of a fake video (an old dated video) that became viral yesterday heavily circulated and propagated by RSS/BJP leaders. The video shows 2–3 men entering into a branch and dragging a lady in the counter, which was shown as an event happened yesterday in a Muthoot branch by CITU leaders to shut down the office.Even former DGP of Kerala (who recently joined BJP) along with many others were prominent in sharing the fake video to discredit their political opponents. The video and post was removed once they realized it was fake. But it made its purpose as it widely reached many who many not aware, it was a fake video. This kind of politically oriented propaganda has hijacked the professional crisis of its employeesAnother problem is that, once the strike came under CITU’s banners, many party workers got into the strike who are unrelated to the issue. We can see many local CITU leaders who have no direct connection with employees in the agitation. What's more irritating is to see CITU’s headload workers (mostly goons) trying to give a sort of protection to the striking employees? How come Headload workers involved in an agitation associated with NBFC Employees?Headload workers getting involved in a strike associated with a strike of white collar workersAnother problem is that, a lot of petty leaders of CITU got involved in this crisis. They are power-arrogant and works in typical strike pattern as done with government bodies. If you are doing a dharna in a govt office, its very likely you block entry of those who are ready to work and sometimes scuffles etc may happen which public doesn’t care at all. After all, its been a pattern for a long time. But doing the same pattern in a private office gives very WRONG SIGNALS to private investors. If one has to strike in a private enterprise, it needs more creative ways, unlike the 60s-70s style pattern. By doing so, CITU has alienated many middle-class working professionals in supporting the just cause of the employees.Coupled with strong propaganda unleashed by Right-wingers, most of the common middle-class people do think this strike is WRONG without seeing the plight of the employees. So essentially the employees need to be blamed as they literarily gave politics to hijack their professional crisis.Thirdly, I think there should be an understanding of working mode of private enterprises. Employment pattern in Private enterprises cannot be driven in old-styled public employment concepts. Yes, the staff of Muthoot are highly underpaid much like many other NBFCs. But it is something known to all. No one believes Muthoot will pay like State Bank of India or Tata Capital etc. So the primary purpose of employment in companies like Muthoot should be building experience and identify newer avenues of growth, rather believing in old styled employment concept of sticking to one company untill retirement. Its where many senior employees lost the plot. They continued working with Muthoot for years for a pittance and never scouted for opportunities elsewhere (or probably never got so).So essentially doing an old-fashioned lock-down strike only ruined their image as Muthoot who were intending to reduce Kerala operations, got valid excuse at expenses of this strike. In short this strike helped Muthoot Finance more than its employees.Anyways, Muthoot’s reduced operations have not much to do with this strike, but essentially they got a perfect valid cover-up/justification in name of so and thereby created a bad name for Kerala…