
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 2, 1995                   TAG: 9508020009
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

ORKAND MARKS CONTRACT'S END WITH MIXED-FEELING BARBECUE

The Orkand Corp. in Salem will barbecue lunch Friday for its 375 employees. But not everyone will be cheering, "Hot dog!''

The gathering will mark the end of Orkand's contract to provide computerized mail sorting for the U.S. Postal Service. Workers at the Apperson Drive plant help process handwritten, colored and hard-to-read mail through an electronic link with mail processing centers in Northern Virginia and Buffalo, N.Y.

An arbitrator acting at the request of the American Postal Workers Union ordered postal officials in November 1993 to offer the processing jobs to regular postal workers, effective this year. Under the ruling, Orkand ceased operations in Lynchburg April 1.

With Orkand pulling out of its 21/2-year-old Salem operation, the Postal Service will assume control of the building and machinery. It has been picking the employees it wants to keep. As of Tuesday, the service had hired 275 Orkand workers and rejected 42; it was still deciding on about 50 more.

The Postal Service will fill nonmanagement vacancies with people hired from the outside, said manager Tim Harvey, an Orkand employee being retained by the Postal Service. Despite the court ruling in favor of the union, few if any existing postal workers took the openings.

The Orkand workers staying on will lose benefits, including a health insurance plan that is company-paid for single people. But most will get a 38 percent raise in hourly pay from $7.08 to $9.74, Harvey said.

Employees who were rejected by the postal service failed either failed a drug test, a criminal record check or a medical test, or did not file required paperwork, the service said.

Five of the workers disqualified on medical grounds are appealing the decision, saying the Postal Service's health requirements are unrealistic.

One of them, Charlotte Edwards of Roanoke, said she will lose her job because she had wrist surgeries eight and 10 years ago for carpel tunnel syndrome. The surgeries were cited as the reason for the decision not to hire her, even though doctors have told her she is cured, she said.

But a spokeswoman said the Postal Service requires medical tests and must administer them before hiring anyone.

by CNB