The Postal Service wants employees to learn more about the Hatch Act as the election approaches.
The Hatch Act is a federal law that governs the political activity of all federal government employees, including USPS employees.
Under the Hatch Act, these employees are prohibited from engaging in partisan political activity while on duty, while wearing a uniform, while on government property or while inside a vehicle owned or leased by the government.
The law also applies to social media use.
While employees are allowed to engage with partisan political content while off duty and on their personal devices, they are prohibited from posting or sharing messages that solicit political contributions or invite others to political fundraisers.
Under the Hatch Act, employees should also be careful when discussing politics at work.
Generally, employees may discuss current events while on duty, but conversations designed to sway others’ opinions regarding a partisan candidate, partisan political party or partisan political group are prohibited.
Even when federal employees are expressing opinions that are permissible under the Hatch Act, if a political conversation becomes disruptive to the workplace, management may place limitations on those discussions.
Additionally, employees may not display a partisan political candidate’s photograph in the workplace — unless it’s an official portrait of a sitting president or it’s an image that shows the employee with the candidate, it predates the election and it was displayed prior to the election.
There are also rules on what employees may do outside the workplace.
For example, employees may not distribute campaign materials outside the polls on Election Day while wearing a postal uniform.
While the Hatch Act restricts the partisan political activity of federal employees, not all actions are off limits.
For instance, employees are permitted to vote in elections, assist in voter registration drives, donate to political candidates and parties, work at the polls on Election Day, volunteer for political campaigns and attend political fundraisers.
Employees can learn more by going to the USPS Ethics Blue page and the website for the Office of Special Counsel, an independent agency that investigates Hatch Act violations and takes disciplinary action.
