Internal U.S. Postal Service documents leaked to the press are casting doubt on the truthfulness of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s Senate testimony on Friday, in which he told a Senate panel under oath that he was “not cutting employee overtime.”
The memo, which was provided by a manager to rank-and-file employees to Salon, appears to confirm reports that under DeJoy the agency is implementing policies aimed at dramatically curtailing the opportunity for worker overtime, to the point that the memo says flatly on its first page: “Overtime will be eliminated.”
During the hearing, Democratic Sen. Gary Peters, of Michigan, asked DeJoy whether he had taken steps to “eliminate” or “curtail” overtime. DeJoy said no.
“We never eliminated overtime,” DeJoy said. When Peters asked whether it had been curtailed, Dejoy replied, “It’s not been curtailed by me or the leadership team.”
However, the memo clearly says that DeJoy’s “expectations” include “eliminating” overtime hours — and, it seems, paid time off.
“The new PMG is looking at COST,” the memo begins, saying that DeJoy is aiming to make the USPS “financially solvent.”
“Here are some of his expectations and they will be implemented in short order,” the memo reads.
*POT will be eliminated. This is not cost effective and it will be taken away.
*Overtime will be eliminated. Again we are paying too much in OT and it is not cost effective and will soon be taken off the table. More to come on this.
*The USPS will no longer use excessive cost to get the job done. If the plants run late they will keep the mail for the new day. If you get the mail late and the carriers are gone and you cannot get the mail out without OT it will remain for the next day. It must be reported in CSDRS.
The document also says that “The plants are not to send mail late. If plants are not on time they will hold the mail for the next day.” This could mean, per the memo, that mail carriers might start their routes as late as 9:00 a.m., “but will not start them any later.” In such cases, the mail will wait a day.
Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union, told Salon in a phone call that “DeJoy made the overtime decision.”
You can read more on Salon.
