The U.S. Postal Service wants Congress to help it make significant cuts to employee benefits as part of a plan to balance the agency’s books, according to a draft business plan HuffPost obtained.
The proposal would save an estimated $18 billion on employee compensation over a decade by shaving paid leave, raising workers’ share of pension contributions, and shifting new employees into less secure 401(k)-style retirement plans.
The change to pension contributions would amount to a cut in take-home pay for hundreds of thousands of workers, while saving the agency nearly $7 billion. And while excluding new employees from a pension plan is common practice for private corporations these days, it would mark a significant shift for a federal-sector job long seen as a steppingstone to the middle class.
The change in employee leave policy would combine vacation with sick days, likely resulting in fewer overall days off for workers. That element is estimated to save the agency more than $5 billion.
The proposals obtained by HuffPost were marked as preliminary and subject to change. The postmaster general, Megan Brennan, is expected to present a business plan to the House Oversight Committee this summer.