Posted on 08/29/2011 6:27:44 AM PDT by Second Amendment First
The U.S. Postal Service, expecting $7 billion in losses this year amid slumping mail volume, is still paying thousands of its workers millions of dollars each year to do nothing.
But it’s paying tens of millions of dollars less for “standby time” than it did just two years ago, according to a new report.
Long-standing labor agreements with two major postal unions prohibit the Postal Service from laying off or reassigning workers because of broken equipment or periods of low mail volume. Instead, idled employees show up for work, sit in a break room or cafeteria and do nothing.
Standby time totaled 170,666 hours in the first six months of 2011, costing the Postal Service $4.3 million, according to an audit by the Postal Service inspector general’s office. In 2009, 1.2 million hours were billed at a cost of $30.9 million.
“At a time when the Postal Service is challenged to operate more efficiently, monitoring standby time is critical to ensuring their ability to effectively manage the workforce,” the report said.
Members of the American Postal Workers Union and the National Association of Letter Carriers have been eligible for standby time payments and rarely used the option until 2009, when mail volume began to plummet and the Postal Service started to consolidate processing plants in the Northeast and the Midwest.
Audits of operations in Dallas and Detroit found that many workers incorrectly billed the Postal Service amid lax oversight of such payments.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Just how long can all of this continue? How long?
I’ve always resented the fact that many post office jobs are filled with people who could never be hired in the private sector, and we all pay the price for this misguided “make work” program.
Charles Bukowski’s book Post Office confirmed what I had long suspected, even though it’s classified as a novel.
And if you really want to feel bad about it, watch the original Miracle on 34th Street and pay attention to the bit about the efficiency of the post office back then.
A stiff adult libation helps.
I stood in that stupid line a while back for nearly 30 minutes while one person waited on people and FOUR stood behind and watched him do his job. They did NOTHING to help at the desk!!! NOTHING!!! I don’t care how much it cost next time, it is UPS or Fed Exp. I am DONE with the post office.
I know of no private sector labor agreements with that sort of restriction. It is absolutely asinine.
Its Fed Ex for me, I hate supporting the UPS union.
If you must use the Post Office having a service like stamps.com helps as you don’t have to go down to the post office.
GM has those kind of agreements.
UPS lost me when the highest paid part-time workers in America went on strike.
Much the way MLB last me.
UPS lost me when the highest paid part-time workers in America went on strike.
Much the way MLB lost me.
i’ve observed unbelievable behaviors across the u.s. in their buildings.
if private businesses functioned as usps does, they’d have gone broke a long time ago.
USPS Motto: "Our situation is improving! Things are getting worse at a slower rate!
In the financial district of DT L.A., there are 5 offices. EVERY ONE of them are spacious enough to accommodate 4 clerks and most of the time, they have ONE on staff. Now what the heck, are the rest doing?
Checking the address labels on the issues of "Playboy" and "Hustler" - y'now, to make sure they're using the Zip+4... ;-)
Last week in the mail I received ads. Not a single thing worth taking out of the mailbox.
They could lay off our carrier and no one would notice except the garbage men.
You encounter the same thing at the grocery store. There are folks cutting meat, some laying out vegetables and fruits, and others stocking canned goods. Then there are the people at the cashregister ~ they handle cash.
Let me put it another way ~ on payday, back in the Army's good old days, the pay officer would show up with some armed guards at a table and the troops would line up to get their pay (actually, their net cash out).
I've done that ~ stand in line for pay in the Army. NOT ONE TIME did the Battalion commander, who was just standing around come over and offer to hand the cash out faster so we could get out of there.
So, why was that? Well, it's because he did not have accountability for that cash.
There ~ if you need it explained again see your doctor.
Most private companies not only do not manage their workhour components that closely, they can't.
Okay smart ass, I will tell you like it was. These people come and went for nearly 30 minutes. They come out and yell something and ask if someone wants to drop anything off or pick up. Then when no one does, they just STAND THERE. THEY DO NOTHING!!! So, SIGN FOR THE STINKING DRAWER and actually do something to assist the people standing in line instead of standing there with arms folded, GETTING PAID, and doing absolutely NOTHING for over 15 minutes!! I assume YOU are a postal worker. It can only explain your smart assed answer. Whether I was told or not, your smart assed remarks are just that, smarted assed remarks defending people getting paid to DO NOTHING! So, yours smart ass.
So, "smart a$$", it's much more like the pay officer than it is a grocery store clerk's position.
Someday you should make some noise. Just ask 'em ~ "Hey, what are you people doing just standing there. Take care of me."
I'm sure they'll meet your wildest expectations!
Sure not as simple mr union man. Sure. Go back to DU.
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