Postal Service's new rural letter-carrier scheduling system is causing pay cuts; one carrier says they're 'pretty scared'

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"Thousands of letter carriers at the U.S. Postal Service are starting to see new schedules that have reduced their hours and cut their pay," reports Eric Katz of Government Executive. "The changes are part of a revamping of the pay structure for rural employees, named the Route Evaluated Compensation System, which is a process that has been years in the making and subject to a series of delays. The new work schedules were slated to go into effect last month but were repeatedly pushed back as the United States Postal Service sought to iron out kinks." They took effect May 6.

For rural letter carriers, the roll-out of RECS was expected, but the information the USPS gave them was inconsistent. David Dayen of The American Prospect reported: "Two years ago, as RECS was getting finalized, workers were told that most carriers would see modest changes at most. . . . But losing four hours a week can translate into an annual salary cut of $8,000, according to letter carriers who spoke on condition of anonymity. . . . the National Rural Letter Carriers' Association union said it was working to resolve disputes over implementation." NRLCA :has filed a national grievance on the plan, saying USPS has withheld details on the data that underlies the new hour and pay calculations," Katz reports.

According to a union estimate, "about 66% of rural letter carriers are now seeing their pay reduced," Katz writes. "David Rodriguez, a rural letter carrier, said his post office employs 12 mail men and women, and 11 of them have lost hours under the new system. Some employees had their hours reduced so severely they will only be conducting auxiliary routes, which further reduces pay. He told Katz, "It's hurting a lot of us. We're all pretty scared." Katz reports, "Postmaster General Louis DeJoy recently told reporters the decision predated him, and the matter was out of his hands." Dejoy said: "That was a negotiated process, an arbitrated process. That was done a long time before I got here. And it's, you know, it's unfortunate, but, I mean, it is what it is, and I didn't decide it."

Rural letter carriers are not paid hourly like city carriers. "USPS has historically conducted occasional hand counts of the mail to determine the hours and pay for employees in rural locations, but the 2012 arbitration decision upended that process," Katz explains. "The rural letter carriers union and postal management worked for years on developing the electronic replacement before finally deploying it last year. Several letter carriers who spoke to Government Executive said they received little training on how to properly log their work and criticized management for a lack of transparency."