Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 69.djvu/164

 122

PUBLIC LAW 6 8 - J U N E 10, 1955

[69 S T A T.

TITLE IV—STEP-INCREASES ?:

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AUTOMATIC ADVANCEMENT BY STEP-INCREASES

SEC. 401. (a) Except as to a substitute employee in the Postal T.ransjiortation Service whose position is allocated to salary level P F S - 5 as a distribution clerk in a railway or highway post office, each employee Avhose position is allocated to the Rural Carrier Schedule, the FourthClass Office Schedule, or salary level P F S - 9 or a lower salary level of the Postal Field Service Schedule, who has not reached the highest step for his position, shall be advanced successively to the next higher step for his position at the beginning of the first pay period following the completion of each fifty-two calendar weeks of satisfactory service, if no equivalent increase in basic salary from any cause was received during such period of fifty-two calendar weeks. The benefit of successive step-increases shall be preserved, under regulations prescribed by the Postmaster General, for employees whose continuous service is interrupted by service in the Armed Forces. (b) Each employee whose position is allocated to salary level P F S - 1 0 or a higher salary level of the Postal Field Service Schedule shall be advanced to and including step four of his salary level in the manner provided in subsection (a) of this section. Advancement of such employee to steps higher than step-j four, exclusive of longevity step-increases, shall be granted by the Postmaster General on the basis of superior performance under regulations issued by him, but no such employee is eligible for more than one step-increase within the time period specified in subsection (a) of this section. (c) Each substitute employee in the Postal Transportation Service, whose position is allocated to salary level P F S - 5 as a distribution clerk in a railway or highway post office, shall be advanced in the manner prescribed for other employees under subsection (a) of this section, but such substitute shall not be advanced beyond step four of salary level P F S - 5. CREDITABLE SERVICE FOR ADVANCEMENT

SEC. 402. Each employee in the postal field service is eligible to earn step-increases in accordance with this Act. Except for temporary rural carriers serving in the absence of regular rural carriers on leave without pay or on military leave, credit shall not be allowed for time on the rolls under a temporary appointment for one year or less unless such time on the rolls is continuous to the date of appointment to a position of unlimited duration. ADJUSTMENT OF SERA'ICE CREDIT

39 us*c^ 8s*i seq. ^

SEC. 403. I n order to retain to the maximum possible extent promo^^^^ credits earned by employees under the Act of July 6, 1945, as amended, and in order to prevent the advancement by step-increases of junior employees ahead of senior employees, employees whose basic salaries are adjusted on the effective date of the schedules in this Act shall establish credit toward advancement by step increases under section 401 in the following manner: (1) Each employee in the automatic grades who had not reached the maximum grade for his position under the provisions of the Act of July 6, 1945, as amended, shall retain the anniversary date established for his next automatic promotion under such Act unless the amount of increase in basic salary which he receives upon adjustment to the appropriate schedule is equal to or greater than the difference

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