Despite the financial blow from the coronavirus pandemic, the Postal Service faces a tremendous workload.
USPS has seen mail volume drop by 25-30% during the pandemic, but an increase of about 60% more in package volume, prompting senior agency officials to roll back more dire predictions of when the agency will run out of cash.
While the Postal Service faces an uphill battle to stay solvent, its workforce of more than 600,000 employees has faced a number of challenges in keeping up with the demand to deliver a volume of packages that sometimes rivals what They drive during the agency’s peak vacation period.
The National Association of Rural Letter Carriers, for example, filed a nationwide complaint last month essentially asking the Postal Service to consider the pandemic as a “peak season” that would allow rural carriers to receive overtime pay.
The union represents some 120,000 rural carriers that deliver on 78,000 routes across the country.
The complaint is at odds with the “inability of the Postal Service to provide adequate relief to rural carriers who have been disproportionately affected by the exponential and sustained growth in package volumes delivered by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
While NRLCA and USPS have not yet reached an agreement, both sides may have trouble finding common ground after the agency issued an internal memo that directs employees to reduce transportation costs and overtime.
Ronnie Stutts, union president, said the current volume of packages has forced some employees to work 12-14 hours a day, but are paid for a regular eight-hour workday.
Meanwhile, the volume of the package during the pandemic can vary greatly between routes, even for carriers who work at the same post office. Stutts said the volume on some routes has been “sporadic”, but others have “astronomical” packet volume.
Rural carriers operate under an evaluated payment system, and most mail routes get an annual evaluation based on how long it takes to complete and how much mail they receive. Under this system, Stutts said that many routes are evaluated at 40 hours a week, and rural carriers are paid accordingly, while some routes can go up to 46 hours a week, with some “overtime built in.”
Either way, that assessment sets the hours and pay a rural carrier receives.
“There would be a few days when the mail volume was low, I could work under your evaluation, but I would get the same pay. And there would be times when he would work, still get the same pay, but for the most part, he made up for himself, ”Stutts said.
The union’s labor agreement with USPS allows an exception to those route evaluations during the agency’s maximum vacation volume between Thanksgiving and Christmas. During this time, rural carriers who work during route evaluation receive overtime pay.
While the USPS handles temporary hiring during the holiday season, the agency does address staff shortages for employees recovering from COVID-19, quarantined, or taking leave to care for children or dependent family members.
Stutts said about 15 to 20% of rural carriers at one point were unable to report to work during the pandemic.
The same is true for other postal unions. The American Postal Workers Union estimates that 2,000 to 3,000 bargaining unit employees have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and at least 25,000 employees have had to be quarantined.
APWU President Mark Dimondstein said USPS reducing overtime during the pandemic puts pressure on postal employees and customers.
“When you combine a pandemic with understaffing, yes, you’re going to have a few extra hours, and arbitrarily saying it’s done means the service that comes with those extra hours is going to go,” Dimondstein said.
Faced with these conditions, NRCLA has proposed that the USPS sign a memorandum that “encourages the provision of auxiliary assistance to prevent rural carriers from exceeding the route’s assessed work hours and provide compensation to the overtime rate if the carrier exceeded evaluated hours of the route. “
“It was: ‘Let’s do what we would do during the Christmas period now. If we work on our assessment, we need to be paid for it, ‘”Stutts said.
However, the union in its complaint states that the USPS “has been unwilling to provide any adequate relief” to the problems it has outlined.
During the pandemic, USPS has signed several memoranda with its unions granting paid sick leave to employees who tested positive for COVID-19, showed symptoms, or had direct contact with someone with the virus. USPS has also allowed postal employees to use their sick leave for unexpected childcare needs during the pandemic.
The Postal Service is required to pay overtime to rural carriers that exceed 2,080 hours per year, equivalent to 40 hours per week, but managers are under pressure to ensure that carriers take enough leave during the year to stay below that limit.
The union, as described in its complaint, also insists that rural carriers should not be “expected or required” to use annual vacations beyond what they normally should take to comply with their route assessment.
“For the most part, the carriers took enough vacations to stay below 2,080 for no trouble. But with all these additional work hours that we weren’t normally used to, we’re going to have a lot of carriers that are coming to that, “said Stutts,” we’re going to have a lot of carriers that are going to be in trouble. [and] they will not be able to take enough permission to stay below 2,080 “.
NRLCA has submitted a request for information on the number of hours rural carriers have worked during the pandemic and what messages the Postal Service has sent to rural post offices during the pandemic.
If the union and the USPS cannot reach a resolution on the problems outlined in the complaint, Stutts said both sides will bring in an external arbitrator to make a decision.
“It does not mean that we are not going to solve it, but we feel that we were not being given a fair shake by some of the things we are doing, and we had to do this to protect our people. Stutts said.
While USPS officials aren’t sure how long this increase in packages will last, Stutts said the increase in deliveries has kept the agency afloat.
“I don’t know what the future entails, this package business could continue, and don’t get me wrong, I hope it does. Because it’s a saving grace for the post office, but it’s just that the whole world has turned upside down, “he said. “Nothing is normal as we knew it.”
