— — Within the past few weeks, a City of Tonawanda mail carrier was fired, and another was “harassed” by superiors.

The reason? According to the union that represents them, the two carriers were reprimanded by management for not taking enough obvious shortcuts while delivering their routes. In other words, those carriers refused to walk across customers’ snow-covered yards in an effort to save a few extra seconds.

It has led to some unease within the walls of the city post office on Seymour Street, union officials say.

“It’s an issue that’s been around forever. Postal management wants you to take the shortest possible shortcut, and we’re OK with that, as long as it’s safe and we’re not inconveniencing our customers,” said Robert J. McLennan, president of the Buffalo and Western New York branch of the National Association of Letter Carriers, the union that represents some 2,000 mail workers across the region. (Carriers in North Tonawanda and Dunkirk belong to the NALC but not Branch 3.)

While union officials agree that letter carriers should work quickly and efficiently, McLennan said that from time to time in different branches, postmasters become too aggressive in their enforcement of that.

He wants Tonawanda customers to know that their frustration with carriers cutting across their lawn should be directed not to the mail workers, but to post office management that is making the directive. The same issue arose in the Depew/Lancaster area a few years ago.

“The carriers are following the instructions of their supervisor and postmaster. If they do not follow those instructions, management will discipline the carriers with letters of warning, suspensions or removals from the Postal Service,” McLennan said, adding that many people spend considerable time and money on maintaining their lawn and don’t like carriers walking across the yard.

Postal Service Buffalo spokeswoman Karen Mazurkiewicz said the post office does direct letter carriers to take “obvious shortcuts” when possible. “But we also ask them to consider safety in their decisions,” she said.

“A blanket statement that an employee must cross a lawn no matter what the condition is contrary to our safety policy and frankly, contrary to common sense,” she added. “Conversely, the presence of snow in itself does not constitute a safety hazard. If that was the sole consideration, we would be without mail delivery for several months out of the year in Western New York.”

According to Mazurkiewicz, the Postal Service has stepped up its efforts to reduce employee injuries. In 2009, the number of injuries and illness recorded decreased by 7.5 percent, and this year is down 8 percent.

In defending their carriers, the union says their collective bargaining agreement with the Postal Service states that carriers are permitted to walk across a customer’s lawn as long as that customer doesn’t object to it, and provided there are no inherent dangers.

“Management in Tonawanda is interpreting that to mean that carriers should cross nearly all lawns, going right across the grass, ice or snow in all kinds of weather, regardless of the condition of the lawns,” McLennan said.

He said the carriers’ contract doesn’t require that customers file a letter if they don’t want mail workers walking across their yard, that it should be enough for the customer to simply tell the carrier not to walk on the lawn. McLennan also said that if a postal worker slips or falls and is injured while walking across a homeowner’s yard, the Postal Service could sue the homeowner.

As for the two employees reprimanded, McLennan said one was fired. “They claimed he wasn’t taking enough obvious shortcuts,” McLennan said. A female carrier also faced the wrath of superiors, he said. “They even were harassing one of our female carriers last week, telling her they didn’t see enough foot prints in the snow,” McLennan claims.

“It’s creating a hostile work environment over there in Tonawanda and everybody’s kind of on edge,” he added.

McLennan said customers are encouraged to call the City of Tonawanda Post Office at 693-4560 or 693-4561 and tell officials if they’d like letter carriers to stay off their lawn.