932 Uniform Requirements (2025)

932 Uniform Requirements

932.1 Employees Required to Wear Uniforms and Work Clothes

932.11 Regular Uniforms

Employees in the following categories meeting the following conditions wear the prescribed uniform while performing their duties:

1. City letter carriers and clerk/special delivery messengers whose tours of duty during the course of a year average 4 hours or more per day performing carrier or special delivery duties.
2. Motor vehicle operators, tractor–trailer operators, new work PVS PSEs motor vehicle operators and tractor-trailer operators, or driving instructors and examiners, if they average 4 hours or more per day during the course of a year, driving vehicles or holding themselves in readiness to drive them.
3. Ramp clerks and transfer clerks, AMF, assigned on a full-time basis to ramp transfer service at airports who perform transfer duties between air carriers (or special transfer clerks, airmail where there are no ramp clerks assigned).
4. Postal Service Security Force Police officers.
5. Passenger elevator operators or elevator starters if they average 4 hours or more per day during the course of a year performing the duties of these jobs.
6. Clerks who average 4 hours or more per day performing city letter carrier duties.
7. Retail personnel, including postmasters at Cost Ascertainment Group (CAG) A–K Post Offices, whose official assignment at a retail counter is for a minimum of 4 hours daily for 5 days per week on a continuing basis, or for not less than 30 hours per week. Employees who do not qualify for a uniform allowance under the criteria described above must wear the appropriate uniform for the position if it is provided to them outside of the uniform allowance program.
8. Retail classroom instructors and retail coaches who qualify for uniform allowances.
9. Letterbox mechanics assigned to work outdoors more than one–half the time, or maintenance mechanics assigned to letterbox mechanic duties performed outdoors for more than one–half of the time.
10. Employees serving as area maintenance technician/specialists who are on official business away from their duty office for one–half or more of their time.
11. Nurses and first aid attendants.
12. Medical officers and technicians.

932.12 Contract Uniforms

The Postal Service has authorized uniforms for mail handlers, custodial maintenance, vehicle maintenance employees, and certain full-time employees in the Business Mail Entry Unit (BMEU) in CAG A–J post offices who meet certain criteria. To be eligible for uniforms under the contract uniforms program, employees must (a) be in public view 4 hours a day for 5 days a week or (b) be in public view not less than 30 hours a week in combined total time. Eligible employees are:

1. Mail Handlers and Group Leaders (Mail Handlers). Those who are assigned to dock areas, platforms, and other locations and meet the 4–hour–a–day or 30–hour–a–week criteria.
2. Custodial Maintenance. Those who are not otherwise authorized to wear uniforms, are assigned to multi–occupied buildings operated by the Postal Service, and meet the 4–hour–a–day or 30–hour–a–week criteria.
3. Vehicle Maintenance. Those who meet the 4–hour–a–day or 30–hour–a–week criteria, including time on road calls.
4. Business Mail Entry Unit (BMEU). Full-time employees in these positions:
1. Bulk mail technician.
2. Bulk mail clerk.
3. Mailing requirements clerk.

932.13 Work Clothes

This program is separate from the contract uniform program. It is for employees who are not presently eligible for uniforms or contract uniforms. Affected are certain mail handlers, maintenance employees, motor vehicle employees, and clerical employees involved full time in pouching and dispatching units, parcel post sorting units, bulk mail sacking operations, and ordinary paper sacking units:

1. Mail handlers and maintenance employees working full time in the following duty assignments located in mail transport equipment centers, supply centers, and mail equipment shops:
1. Accountable paper supply clerk.
2. Computer printline production operator.
3. Custodian.
4. Electrician.
5. Electronic technician.
6. Group leader, mail bag examination.
7. Group leader, mail equipment handler.
8. Group leader, mail equipment repair.
9. Group leader, warehousing.
10. Label printing center mechanic.
11. Laborer, custodial.
12. Laborer, materials handling.
13. Lockmaker.
14. Machine operator.
15. Mail equipment handler.
16. Maintenance mechanic.
17. Maintenance mechanic, general.
18. Materials handling equipment operator.
19. Packer–in–charge.
20. Packer, shipper.
21. Packer, warehouseman.
22. Press operator.
23. Receiving and shipping clerk.
24. Sewing machine operator.
25. Shipping clerk.
26. Supply clerk.
27. Tool and parts clerk.
28. Warehouseman.
2. Clerk craft employees assigned to:
1. Ordinary paper sacking units.
2. Parcel postal distribution units (manual).
3. Pouching and dispatching units.
3. Mail handlers — full-time mail handlers working in the following areas:
1. Ordinary paper sacking units.
2. Parcel post units (dumping of sacks or manual separation of sacks).
3. Platform (dock) operations.
4. Pouch dumping units.
5. Sack dumping units.
4. Motor vehicle maintenance employees:
1. Automotive painter.
2. Automotive mechanic.
3. Body and fender repairman.
4. Garageman.
5. Junior mechanic, automotive.
6. Storekeeper, automotive parts.
7. Tire repairman.
8. Tool and parts clerk.
9. Vehicle maintenance analyst.
5. Assigned full time in the specified duty assignment:
1. Assistant engineman.
2. Blacksmith–welder.
3. Building equipment mechanic.
4. Building maintenance custodian.
5. Carpenter.
6. Cleaner.
7. Conveyor–mechanic.
8. Custodian.
9. Electrician.
10. Electronic technician.
11. Elevator mechanic.
12. Engineman.
13. Fireman.
14. Fireman–laborer.
15. Group leader.
16. Label printing center mechanic.
17. Laborer.
18. Laborer, custodial.
19. Laborer, materials handling.
20. Maintenance mechanic.
21. Mason.
22. MPE mechanic.
23. Office appliance repairman.
24. Painter.
25. Plumber.
26. Postal machines mechanic.
27. Scale mechanic.
28. Stationary engineer.
29. Maintenance support clerk.
30. Vehicle operations maintenance assistant.
31. Vending machine mechanic.

932.14 Aprons

Postmaster or installation heads are authorized to purchase aprons locally on an as–needed basis for those employees who work on assignments involving dirty work but do not qualify for work clothes.

932.15 Alternative Protective Items

If the installation head determines that the occasional use of such items as coveralls, smocks, aprons, or foul weather gear meet the need, these items are to be purchased for the installation through the GSA FEDSTRIP catalog or through other authorized means.

932.2 Uniforms Not Required

932.21 New, Part-time, and Casual Employees

Unless uniforms have been provided to them, the following employees are not required to wear uniforms:

1. New employees listed in 932.11 (except eligible Security Force employees) during the first 90 days of their employment, except for the prescribed uniform cap. Employees required to wear the uniform cap are reimbursed from uniform allowance funds for the cap (see F–1, Post Office Accounting Procedures, 756). When the employees become eligible for the full uniform allowance, the cost of the cap is charged against their first year allowance.
2. Part-time employees with a regular or flexible work schedule, except for the cap, unless they meet the basic minimum hourly and daily requirements outlined in 932.11.
3. Casual employees, except for the cap.

932.22 Ninety–Day Requirement Exemptions

The following employees are not required to wait 90 days for uniform eligibility (see 932.21a):

1. Eligible employees in the Postal Service Security Force.
2. Present career employees in the regular work force who are assigned into a uniform category and have completed their 90–day probationary period. This exemption includes Postal Support Employees (PSEs) who upon conversion to career status are not required to serve a 90-day probationary period.

932.3 Specifications and Quality Control Certification

932.31 Specifications

The Postal Service Uniform Quality Control Office issues specifications for items of uniform dress for the guidance of uniform manufacturers and retailers.

932.32 Quality Control Certification

Payment is made only for purchases of authorized uniform items manufactured in accordance with specifications issued by the Postal Service Uniform Quality Control Office. All items except overboots, gloves, hose, face masks, and helmets must contain the certificate label issued by the Postal Service Uniform Quality Control Office (see 936.32). By incorporating the label, the manufacturer guarantees that the item conforms to specifications. The label appearing in the uniform items must state the following: