Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 74.djvu/689

 74 ST AT. 3

PUBLIC LAW 86-682-SEPT. 2, 1960

has completed two or more years of service as such an employee, to any position in the postal field service and may fix his initial rate of compensation at the minimum rate of the appropriate level of the basic salary schedule applicable to the position, or at any step of that level that does not exceed the highest previous rate of compensation received by him during his service in the legislative branch. § 3552. Automatic advancement by step increases (a) Except as to a 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, each employee whose position is allocated to the Rural Carrier Schedule, the Fourth Class Office Schedule, or 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 the 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 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 may not be advanced beyond step four of salary level FFS-5. § 3553. Creditable service for advancement Each employee in the postal field service is eligible to earn stepincreases in accordance with this chapter. Except for temporary rural carriers serving in the absence of regular rural carriers on leave without pay or on military leave, credit may not be allowed for time on the rolls under a temporary appointment for one year or less unless the time on the rolls is continuous to the date of appointment to a position of unlimited duration. § 3554. Compensation of certain temporary employees Temporary employees hired for a continuous period of one year or less for a position under the Postal Field Service Schedule shall be paid a basic salary at the entrance step for the salary level of the position to which they are appointed. § 3555. Reduction in salary step The Postmaster General may reduce in salary step clerks or carriers whose efficiency falls below a fair standard or whenever it is necessary for purposes of discipline. A t the beginning of any pay period commencing ninety days after a reduction in salary of such an employee, the Postmaster General may restore him to his former salary or advance him to an intermediate salary. That action is not regarded as an "equivalent increase in basic salary." § 3556. Automatic advancement withheld At the beginning of any pay period commencing ninety days after the withholding of an automatic advancement of an employee for unsatisfactory service, the Postmaster General may advance him, on evidence that his record has been satisfactory during the intervening period.

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