automatic advancement by step-in creases

automatic advancement by step-in creases Sec. 401. (a) Except as to a substitute employee in the Postal transportation Service whose position is allocated to salary level PFS–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 salary level PFS–9 or a lower salary level of the Postal Field Service Schedule, who has not reached the highest step for his position, shad 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 PFS–10 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 stepifour, 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 PFS–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 PFS–5.