WASHINGTON, D.C. [09/25/23] — Today, U.S. Senators Tina Smith, Amy Klobuchar, and U.S. Representative Angie Craig (all D-Minn.) sent a letter to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy seeking answers about an apparent payroll system error that led to an estimated 53,000 rural letter carriers missing or receiving only a partial paycheck on September 1. After hearing from Minnesotans affected by the error, the lawmakers pressed DeJoy on the Postal Service’s insufficient response to their significant error, and demanded immediate back pay for the impacted workers.
“Rural letter carriers – including carrier assistants – are essential workers whose services are critical to small towns and rural places in Minnesota and around the country,” wrote the lawmakers in their letter. “As you know, these carriers deliver medications to veterans, bills to seniors, and support businesses large and small, all for relatively modest pay. Like a lot of American families, many rural letter carriers can’t afford a missed paycheck. We understand that USPS offered affected employees the option to receive a salary advance in the form of a money order at 65 percent of gross pay. However, that is an insufficient proposal that fails to address the scope of these employees’ needs, and does not demonstrate a commitment to getting these workers the pay they earned.”
In their letter, Smith, Klobuchar, and Craig called for DeJoy to answer the following questions by September 30, 2023:
- Do you commit to paying all affected employees in full by October 1, 2023?
- If not, by what date will USPS pay all affected employees in full?
- How many USPS employees were impacted by this payroll system error?
- What types of employees were impacted by this payroll system error?
- What caused this payroll system error?
- What steps have been taken to prevent such an error in the future?
- How has USPS communicated with affected employees about this error?
Read the full letter below.
Blah, blah, blah. Lots of gum flapping that will result in exactly no changes.
It’s not a pay advance. Carriers have already worked for that money.
As if RRECS hasn’t already caused dramatic financial hardships for rural carriers, now they don’t even get paid on time. There is no excuse or valid reason for this level of incompetence.
That’s some BS. I’m in Atlanta Georgia and the same thing has been happening every pay period since June. I’m in the union, and the only thing our Reps in Washington are doing is just talking about it while the actual Rural Carriers suffer financially and emotionally. Bill collectors don’t want to hear those excuses, they want their money so we should DEMAND it too. Other carrier companies did through strikes and won. Here we are talking about it and losing.
I have had this happen more than once when I was an RCA. If you do the math after federal and state taxes and everything else you have taken out which for most rca isn’t much 65%!is about what you bring home. They keep the rest so they don’t have to turn around and take those things back out of your pay or you don’t have to turn around and pay it back when you do get the money. The EMA I don’t believe they do give that. But unless it’s changed I do believe they can give you an advance on that as well. But they don’t want to tell you because of the paperwork. Regardless an organization as big and as long established as ours this shouldn’t be happening and people shouldn’t be made to have to ask for the money they owed. The times it’s happened to me was because of human error. The person putting in payroll locally missed mine. I have worked with TACs and for regular or full time employees it will throw a code if you miss them RCA and part time employees it doesn’t. The 1st time it happened to me I had used up a lot of money I was saving for the closing on my house to buy a car for the job. Because of the 2 weeks of working I was going make it up with that check. Well I didn’t get paid. The PM who’s fault it was so old well should plan better with your money. One of the managers for the city side heard her and seen I was upset asked why I told him. He was mad he got me a money order in about 20 minutes. That should’ve been my first clue that the post office is a toxic place.