Potential Solution(s)
Some stakeholders have proposed options for reducing the Postal Service’s labor costs. While the OIG is not recommending or endorsing any course of action, those options include:
■ Increasing the share of pre-career employees: Pre-career employees are less expensive than career employees because they receive lower salaries and fewer benefits. Therefore, increasing their proportion of the workforce could significantly reduce the Postal Service’s labor costs. This could be achieved by hiring new employees at the pre-career level but ending the current practice of automatically converting them to career status after a certain amount of time on the job. However, the Postal Service has struggled to recruit and retain pre-career employees, so increasing the share of pre-career employees could potentially lead to a more unstable workforce.
■ Reducing headcount: The Postal Service could reduce its total headcount through various means including a hiring freeze, voluntary early retirement program (VERA), reduction-in-force (RIF), or layoffs, where contractually permitted.11 In FY 2025, roughly 79,000 employees across the four major postal unions were eligible to retire, and an additional 89,000 will be eligible within the next five years. Currently, many of the Postal Service’s CBAs significantly limit the agency’s ability to conduct layoffs. Additionally, the legal requirement to deliver six days per week to every address may limit the extent to which USPS can reduce its workforce.
Some of these proposals are sound and should be enacted, but some are harmful and would lead to further degradation of the service. The push for non career employment and reduction or elimination of retirement benefits would irreparably damage the service. It’s on the brink now due to radicals in labor pushing DEI policies so much that finally drug testing is being resumed. The fact that these same radicals eliminated it in the first place tells you all you need to know.
If they want “pre career” just offer a VERA,
then up the starting pay for City Carriers and move along.
The did this before with TEs??? It doesn’t work,
but they want to repeat it.
Let me out of this dump??? And, give jobs with no future
what a horrible place USPS!!!!!
how about eliminating the union all together and getting rid of the lazy people who spends their 8 hrs work day as a break to watch movies and sleep because they have other jobs. Zero accountability for poor performance. wasteful and toxic atmosphere. No regards for how good or bad your performance is, only seniority matter. They are truly lucky they are still operational