Complaints arose this week that local rural mail carriers were being directed to report to work at the Post Office annex despite testing positive for COVID-19, the Herald-Banner has learned.
A rural carrier and the spouse of a carrier contacted the paper and complained that some carriers were told to complete their routes despite having COVID-19.
Albert Ruiz, a spokesman for U.S. Postal Service’s Dallas district, which oversees Greenville, said the Dallas office “has been made aware and is taking steps to address concerns, which include following CDC guidelines.”
Ronnie Stutts, president of the National Rural Letters Carrier Association, a union representing the interests of rural letter carriers based in Alexandria, Va., said his office had also received a complaint out of Greenville this week, which it intends to investigate.
He said he would advise a letter carrier that this “is a serious violation of safety, and I would refuse. I’d say no, I’m not coming to work, and they (letter carriers) are well within their rights to do that.”
Stutts said the union will examine the complaint “but it’s the only one I know of that we’ve gotten up here.”