Supreme Court hears mail carrier's religious tolerance case

With the stacking of religious zealots on the SC, i wouldn't be surprised if he wins the case.

Keep us posted

I've been a mail carrier, specifically a City Carrier Assistant (CCA). When you sign on, you understand that you may work particularly long hours. I started at the end of November and was working "Amazon Sundays" during the Christmas rush. At my Post Office, on a "normal" Sunday, it was a 5 hour day, give or take. During Christmas it was up to 13 or 14. Yes, being down a guy made the day longer. But, here's the thing....

Our supervisors could plan around being down a guy VERY easily. See, there are "regulars" and CCAs. Regulars have an assigned route, and they do that route 5 days a week. M-Sa. On the 6th day, a "swing" carrier, who covers the "off" day of 5 routes, covers it. Or it is covered by a CCA. If a regular has too high of volume on a day (most often Mondays, but not always), the CCA will pick up part of their route. CCAs bide their time, picking up all of the overflow - to include Sundays - until a "regular" spot opens up due to transfer out, retirement, etc. Then the CCA with the most seniority gets bumped up and becomes a regular, no longer having to work overtime, Sundays, etc.

CCAs can expect to work most Sundays. If the anticipated volume is low AND there are enough CCAs, they can rotate having a Sunday off. BUT, when we were short on CCAs (at one point we were down to 2 of our 7 slots, due to injuries, military leave (we had a reservist and an NG), and quitting) they offered overtime to regulars. They almost always took up the offer, as they made double time or sometimes triple time. During Christmas rush, they offered it to regulars even when we had 6 of 7 CCAs.

It works almost exactly the same on the rural carrier side (those are the folks you see driving a civilian jeep with " US Mail" on it, instead of a postal truck), although they have completely different rules for pay and timekeeping. But, still, your RCAs cover the overflow from the regulars, including Sundays, AND the PO can offer overtime to regulars to cover high volume or low availability on Sundays.

So the excuse of "everyone had to work more" is BS. The supervisors COULD HAVE asked a regular to come in. They chose not to because they wanted to pressure this guy into placing job over faith.


And before folks start with "well, if overflow on Sundays was part of the job, why did he take it?" That is a relatively new phenomenon. When he got hired on, it was NOT part of the job. They added a day of work which they had told him he would have off.

As for the "what about other religions" argument, there is no reason they cannot be accommodated, as well. Again, by supervisors doing their job when scheduling, both regular carriers and CCAs (RCAs) can be accommodated for both regular holy days (weekly Sabbath observance or other similar) and high holy days (Christmas, Easter, Purim, Passover, Eid, etc.).

Yes, there has to be SOME limits, as, for instance, there are Catholics who observe mass every single day. But one specified day off every week is not unreasonable.