Rural Mail Carriers Face Pay Cuts That Could Worsen Service Woes for Vermonters

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https://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/rural-mail-carriers-face-pay-cuts-that-could-worsen-service-woes-for-vermonters/Content?oid=38293210

Rural Mail Carriers Face Pay Cuts That Could Worsen Service Woes for Vermonters

By RACHEL HELLMAN
Published May 24, 2023 at 10:00 a.m.

The U.S. Postal Service has imposed big pay cuts on some Vermont workers in rural areas, leading to fears that carriers will quit and leave the postal service less able to provide reliable mail delivery.

The pay reductions are the result of a new system the postal service has adopted to calculate the salaries paid to rural mail carriers. Nationwide, two-thirds of those carriers will make less money.

"After two years of not taking any time off of work because of COVID, this is what our reward is?" a rural mail carrier in Windsor County said. The postal worker asked to remain anonymous because he is prohibited from speaking with reporters. He said the formula that took effect on May 6 reduced his salary from $54,000 to $46,000 a year — a 15 percent pay cut. Meanwhile, his route and the time it takes to deliver the mail have not changed at all.

A rural mail carrier in Orange County echoed his dismay.

"There's no transparency in any of this. We got numbers thrown at us, but none of them add up," she said. Her pay was cut by $10,000, though she has worked for the postal service for nearly 24 years.

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[ruet]

1. "asked to remain anonymous because he is prohibited from speaking with reporters."

I'm sorry; what now? Seven Days didn't push for clarity on that point? No wonder they turned off comments.

[lostnfound]

4. Hazardous to democracy, gagging real people with real experiences while bots spew lies everywhere

I’m disgusted with “prohibited from speaking”. Hazardous to democracy
We need to hear from real people about their real experiences.

Doctors and nurses too, gagged.

Meanwhile bots spew their lies thickly, paid or funded by nefarious agents, but the courts are leaning toward having no restrictions on that.

[bucolic_frolic]

2. Unheard of in any industry. Workers will seek new jobs if they can.

Is this a GOP-DeJoy test case for reducing payments? A test case for Social Security?

[progressoid]

3. Not entirely DeJoy's fault.

This has been an ongoing issue for years.

https://www.govexec.com/pay-benefits/2023/05/pay-cuts-have-rural-letter-carriers-scared-and-outraged/386376/

Earlier this month, Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, John Fetterman, D-Pa., and Ed Markey, D-Mass., sent a letter to DeJoy asking him to delay RRECS implementation, pointing to its “serious flaws.” Nearly 14,000 employees are set to lose more than eight hours of pay per week, they said, based on unreliable data.

“Implementing RRECS in its current form will arbitrarily enact a pay cut for tens of thousands of rural postal workers who still lack a formal dispute process and have a history of delayed back pay from the postal service,” the senators said. “Furthermore, USPS has withheld information about how RRECS has made its initial route evaluations.”

They requested that USPS share the data that led to the new route calculations, create a process for employees to dispute changes to their routes, explain how management decided to shorten the expected time to complete certain tasks and ensure the rural letter carrier workforce capacity does not diminish.

“At a time when USPS is struggling to deliver mail to rural areas, due in part to an inability to recruit rural letter carriers, we fear that RRECS’ impact on working conditions and pay will further deteriorate a vital service to our rural communities,” the senators said.

Dave Partenheimer, a USPS spokesman, said the new process was jointly negotiated by the agency and the union.