Mr. V. C. NovVOSAD,
Postmaster,

Sugarland, Tex.

APRIL 21, 1979.

DEAR SIR: Three times I have visited your installation in the past two weeks in an attempt to discuss with you mutual problems in relation to our national working agreement. The first two times I was told that you were unavailable for a meeting. The third time I notified you Five days in advance via your foreman only to have you to refuse to meet with me with the statement that the foreman was not authorized to commit you to meet with anyone.

Your request that I write you a letter requesting a meeting with a complete agenda is not acceptable to the union as we too have problems with that kind of forum and channels. It appears that you want to make any meeting with the union a cumbersome unwieldy matter in the hopes that we will simply vanish into the night along with the problems that you have created with your harsh treatment of the letter carriers.

Unless and until you agree to sit down with myself and the stewards I am instructing the stewards to file grievances and assist the employees in the filing of EEO charges in every matter that involves contractual violations and mistreatment of the employees. Along with the complaints filed by the employees I will of course pursue the matter with the National Labor Relations Board and your superiors.

If and when the time arrives that we cannot sit down in a spirit of mutual concern and cooperation and discuss problems that affect both our organizations it is indeed a sad day for the postal service. It appears by your attitude that we are at an impasse. I urge you once again to reconsider your position in this matter. Sincerely,

VERNON WADE.

President, National Association of Letter Carriers, Local 283.

HOUSTON SECTIONAL CENTER,
Houston, Tex., 77201, April 18, 1980.

To: All postmasters, Houston MSC; all managers, Houston PO.
Subject: Sexual harassment.

Quoted below is a statement of policy regarding the above subject, as pblicized in Postal Bulletin 21240 dated April 10, 1980:

Sexual harassment is unacceptable conduct which takes, various forms. t is deliberate or repeated unsolicited verbal comments, questions, representations or physical contacts of an intimate sexual nature which are unwelcome the recipient. Sexual harassment can also take the form of making or threatening to make decisions affecting an employee's job on the basis of an acceptance or efusal of a request for sexual intimacy.

Sexual harassment is a form of employee misconduct which undermines the integrity of the employment relationship. Like all forms of harassment, it violates the Code of Ethical Conduct. It undermines morale and interferes with the productivity of its victims and their co-workers. While it is not the Postal Service's intent to regulate employees' social interactions or relationships freely entered into, conduct constituting sexual harassment will not be tolerated.

Employees making allegations of sexual harassment may seek remedies through Equal Employment Opportunity procedures, grievance/arbitration procedures for bargaining unit employees under the collective bargaining agreements, appropriate grievance procedures for non-bargaining unit employees, and by the reporting of conduct involving criminal activity to the Postal 'nspection Service. Employees who do not wish to exercise formal avenues to achieve resolution of their grievances may appeal informally to appropriate and impartial supervisors and managers within the organization. Employees who engage in sexual harassment in the workplace can expect serious disciplinary action.

WILLIAM F. BOLGER,
Postmaster General.

While the above stated policy applies to all employees, it is especially appli cable to supervisory employees because of the obvious implications of the superiorsubordinate relationships existing between supervisors and employees under their

spheres of influence. You may be assured that this policy will be judiciously but vigorously enforced in this office.

Mr. LELAND. Thank you, Mr. Jennings.

A recent Postal Service evaluation for Houston reports that the EEO Advisory Committee has only met twice since January 1979. Considering all of the problems here, wouldn't it be helpful to have the committee meet weekly or monthly?

Mr. JENNINGS. I suspect you are right. I should increase the frequency. However, I am really not sure how much. My EEO officers might have a better feel for this. This is a committee that guides us and gives us input.

Mr. STINSON. I would suspect that meeting on a weekly schedule, we would find ourselves simply meeting to be meeting. A monthly schedule might be appropriate, however.

Mr. LELAND. I would certainly think so. It seems to me that the volume of complaints would warrant now more frequent meetings than you have had.

Mr. JENNINGS. The point is well taken.

Mr. LELAND. And to that, then, are there no whites on the committee? Mr. JENNINGS. That is correct.

Mr. LELAND. Is there any particular reason why?

Mr. JENNINGS. I don't have a reason. Do you have a reason?

Mr. STINSON. No.

Mr. JENNINGS. I think it's something we have inherited and we haven't corrected.

Mr. LELAND. I would certainly hope that some kind of at least token representation of white folks be had.

Mr. JENNINGS. Be assured that it will be corrected.

Mr. LELAND. The evaluation also reports that there are no minorities or women represented in the position of most responsibility, that is, the level of EAS-22 and above, is that correct?

Mr. JENNINGS. At the present time, I believe that's correct.
Mr. LELAND. Why is that?

Mr. JENNINGS. Well, it has been only in recent years that we have been able to get women to step forward and be supervisors. I suspect that as time goes by and these women who started at a level 15 sometime ago progress through the ranks and become more competitive with their male counterparts, you will see more women in this position. Mr. LELAND. How many positions are we talking about at this level? Mr. JENNINGS. Positions above level 20? In my MSC? I don't have that on the tip of my tongue.

Do you have it?

Mr. STINSON. There are 14 in the post office.

Mr. JENNINGS. Fourteen in the Houston Post Office. Seventeen in the entire MSC.

78-231 0 - 81-4

Mr. LELAND. I see. It seems to me that that amount represents a very grave problem.

Mr. JENNINGS. We have some goals. You heard my boss read them. Mr. LELAND. You testified that 52 percent of the level 15 positions and higher are minorities. Yet if you study the evaluation report on minority census contained therein, the numbers are substantially lower.

For example, of all of the jobs above level 6, over 63 percent are occupied by whites and only 26 percent are black. Only 10 percent are Hispanic.

How do you explain these figures?

Mr. JENNINGS. I believe the date on the report, which is what, April? Mr. STINSON. And I am not sure if he is referring to representation

Mr. JENNINGS. This discrepancy in numbers that he has this report was in April 1980. Now, the numbers I gave with respect to how minorities are level 15 or above is a very current figure.

many

Mr. STINSON. Right. I think the figures in the evaluation report were not even current as of the date of the evaluation. I think they may have dated back into last year, whereas the figures that Mr. Jennings gave you were, if I may quote the service printout, as of July 25 this year.

Mr. LELAND. So you are saying that there is something wrong with the figures that I have here, our evaluation, your evaluation of the report, is that true?

Mr. JENNINGS. No, the figures that you are reading are just not

current.

Mr. STINSON. They are perhpas older-older than the figures he just quoted from.

Mr. LELAND. Let's see if we can resolve or at least come to some understanding about the report, itself.

The report is a report that was done through what period of time? Mr. JENNINGS. April 14 through 18 and April 22 through 24 of 1980. Mr. STINSON. That was the time when they did the study.

Mr. LELAND. Pardon me?

Mr. STINSON. That was when they did the study.

I think it will be helpful if you would, and I couldn't quite hear the beginning of your question, reference the conflicting numbers.

Mr. LELAND. Well, very simply you said that around 50 percent, 52 percent of level 15 positions or higher were held by minorities.

In the study, in the report we referred to, the minority census contained therein, the numbers are substantially lower.

For example, all the jobs above level 6, over 63 percent, are occupied by whites and 26 percent black and 10 percent Hispanic.

Mr. STINSON. This 52 percent is in the total work force.

Mr. LELAND. I see. Now we are getting somewhere. I appreciate that. Mr. STINSON. Yes, sir.

Mr. LELAND. In addition, the evaluation seems to contradict your claim that 61 percent of the non-bargaining-unit positions are minority. The report states that for the year April 1979 to April 1980, 83 promotion, 50 percent were white, 32 percent black, and 18 percent Hispanic. Since blacks made up 52 percent of the work force during

that time the promotions were quite disproportionate. Do you agree with that?

Mr. JENNINGS. I am not able to respond to these numbers. That is my problem. I have more current numbers.

Mr. LELAND. Let me ask you then another way. Do you feel that the promotions were proportionate to the work force or the representation of the work force?

Mr. JENNINGS. Yes; I do.

Mr. LELAND. We will come, I think we will want to come back to that in just a minute.

Mr. JENNINGS. You asked if a proportionate number of minority promotions represented the work force, right?

Mr. LELAND. Let me state it, myself, and maybe we can get a better understanding of the question, itself.

Mr. JENNINGS. If you would.

Mr. LELAND. You stated that 52 percent of the work force was minority.

During the report there were some 83 promotions. What I am asking is the proportion, if there are 52 percent minorities, the promotions would be, it would seem to me, if we are fair, would be 52 percent for minorities. And that's without breaking down the different minorities, which would give us much more than the figures that you have given through your report in that you have stated in the report, itself, 50 percent of the promotions were white, 32 percent black, and 18 percent Hispanic.

I am concerned that your promotions are disproportionate and I am trying to elicit from you whether or not you feel that these promotions were commensurate with or proportionate to the characteristic of the work force, itself.

To expedite the proceedings, if you will, let me proceed, and Mr. Jennings, have your colleague to respond to that.

Mr. JENNINGS. We will reconcile it.

Mr. LELAND. OK. Maybe we will come back a little bit later but I would like to move on.

Mr. Davis, you say minority representation is good in the upper levels.

The figures you cite don't compare well with the minority population as a whole for the Eastern District.

Do you agree with that?

Mr. DAVIS. We believe we still have opportunities for improvement in the upper levels, particularly through details for training purposes. It seems to me that although we have been making progress, we still have opporunities for improvement.

Mr. LELAND. Is there any particular reason why there is some problem with advancement in this area? There is always latitude for improvement or some room for improvement in almost anything we do, but are there any particular obstacles that you have faced in terms of the kind of representation you are talking about?

Mr. DAVIS. I think the area of our opportunity is identifying those people in, for instance, levels 15, 17 who have potential, and then selecting those people for training and development purposes.

I think the problem we are facing over the years has been that we have been building the base from which to develop the areas of promotion; 19 through 25, 27.

If you will look at a curve-I think it's no different here than it is in many other places there is a preponderance of minorities and women at the entry levels-the lower levels-and we begin to taper off very seriously when we get into the exceptionally high levels.

I think this is where we have been building the base, in the, shall we say, entry level to nonbargaining positions, levels 15 and above.

I think that what we are doing in filling that base with a wide assortment of qualifications. Our job, our opportunity if you will, is to identify people within those ranks that we can assign to higher level details, can encourage for training, and can encourage to seek out higher levels. For instance, one of the things we do is conduct career awareness conferences so that those people who are interested and who wish to pursue higher level advancement in the Postal Service may avail themselves and at least know what is available in the way of training and what we as upper management look for in the area of higher level detail assignment and this sort of thing.

These conferences facilitate identification by higher level supervisors of employees with potential. Now, I don't subscribe to publicizing a fast track directory, but I do subscribe to identifying persons who have potential, women and minorities, along with whites and nonwhite minorities, handicapped and so forth, that we can put into positions where we can give them the opportunity for training and can assess their potential.

We do this in the area of OIC assignments, for instance, officer in charge pending postmaster appointments. We do it where we have vacancies.

For instance, if a district director job became vacant, we would try to choose somebody who has the potential that we want to take a look at. And I think this is the area where we probably have the most work to do-identifying those people in that broad base of levels 15 through perhaps 17 who will qualify and hopefully will come through the ranks as potential 20's and above-22's and above. We do this and I think we can do more of it.

Mr. LELAND. Thank you.

Concerning the postmaster assignments within the eastern district, how many are there?

Mr. DAVIS. I am sorry, I didn't hear your question, sir.

Mr. LELAND. Concerning the appointments or your assignments, rather, within the eastern district, how many are there and what percentage are black, Hispanic, and women?

Mr. DAVIS. I am sorry, I don't have that information.

Mr. LELAND. These are postmaster assignments.

Mr. DAVIS. Postmasters? Well, I have close to a thousand post offices in the district and I don't have that information here. I know that we have some high-level women. We have at least one grade 24 woman. We have a grade 22.

But I don't have the distribution, sir.

Mr. LELAND. We are talking about the postmaster assignment. How many postmasters do we have in the Eastern District that are white? Mr. DAVIS. Well, there would be over 900 postmasters.

Mr. LELAND. Can you give us a more specific, more specific statistics on this?