USPS has shorted some workers' pay for years, CPI finds

https://apnews.com/article/business-race-and-ethnicity-29a1f39469dde2d02322588a6d346769

By ALEXIS FERNANDEZ CAMPBELL

Snip: The Postal Service regularly cheats mail carriers out of their pay, according to a Center for Public Integrity investigation. Managers at hundreds of post offices around the country have illegally underpaid hourly workers for years, arbitrators and federal investigators have found.

Private arbitration records tell part of the story. From 2010 to 2019, at least 250 managers in 60 post offices were caught changing mail carriers’ time cards to show them working fewer hours, resulting in unpaid wages, according to a batch of arbitration award summaries obtained by Public Integrity for cases filed by one of the three major postal unions.

Supervisors found to be cheating were rarely disciplined — often receiving only a warning or more training. In four cities, arbitration documents show, post office managers continued to alter time cards after promising union leaders they would stop.

Since 2005, meanwhile, the Postal Service has been cited by the federal government 1,150 times for underpaying letter carriers and other employees, including one case that involved 164 violations, according to Labor Department data obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. The agency determined that those workers lost about $659,000 in pay. But it allowed the Postal Service to pay back less than half after negotiations with the agency — a common practice at the Labor Department. About 19% of the cases did not indicate whether the Postal Service paid back employees.

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FILE - In this Aug. 17, 2020, file photo, a United States Postal Service carrier delivers mail to homes in Salt Lake City. A Center for Public Integrity investigation finds that the U.S. Postal Service regularly cheats mail carriers out of their pay. Arbitrators and federal investigators have found managers at hundreds of post offices around the country have illegally underpaid hourly workers for years. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)