| | | Another liar; under oath, even
Internal USPS memo appears to contradict postmaster general’s testimony
Published
5 hours ago on
August 22, 2020
By Roger Sollenberger, Salon
Salon has obtained internal U.S. Postal Service documents that appear to contradict Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s congressional testimony on Friday, in which he told a Senate panel under oath that he was not cutting employee overtime.The memo, which was provided by a manager to rank-and-file employees, appears to confirm reports that under DeJoy the agency is implementing policies aimed at dramatically curtailing the opportunity for worker overtime, to the point that the memo says flatly on its first page: “Overtime will be eliminated.”
Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., asked DeJoy whether he had taken steps to “eliminate” or “curtail” overtime. DeJoy said no.
“We never eliminated overtime,” DeJoy said. When Peters asked whether it had been curtailed, Dejoy replied, “It’s not been curtailed by me or the leadership team.”
The content of the internal USPS document obtained by Salon, titled “PMGs expectations and plan,” appears to match a memo that was reported by the Washington Post last month. Salon has not yet confirmed whether this is the same document.
The memo does not say that USPS will make employees work extra hours without pay, which would be unlawful. However, it does say that DeJoy’s “expectations” include “eliminating” overtime hours — and, it seems, paid time off.
“The new PMG is looking at COST,” the memo begins, saying that DeJoy is aiming to make the USPS “financially solvent.”
“Here are some of his expectations and they will be implemented in short order,” the memo reads.
*POT will be eliminated. This is not cost effective and it will be taken away.*Overtime will be eliminated. Again we are paying too much in OT and it is not cost effective and will soon be taken off the table. More to come on this.*The USPS will no longer use excessive cost to get the job done. If the plants run late they will keep the mail for the new day. If you get the mail late and the carriers are gone and you cannot get the mail out without OT it will remain for the next day. It must be reported in CSDRS.
The memo also says that “The plants are not to send mail late. If plants are not on time they will hold the mail for the next day.” This could mean, per the memo, that mail carriers might start their routes as late as 9:00 a.m., “but will not start them any later.” In such cases, the mail will wait a day.
Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union, told Salon in a phone call that “DeJoy made the overtime decision.”
“He thinks he’s going to apply private trucking principles to the Postal Service, do everything in prescribed hours — that cannot work,” Dimondstein said.
He pointed to the effects of removing sorting machines.
“Look, if a machine only sorts so much mail in so many hours, then you can only put in so many hours,” he said. “That’s not moving the mail. I’m not arguing for overtime, I’m arguing for the hours of work that it takes to move the mail for this country.”
DeJoy told senators that there was “no intention” to bring back the mail sorting machines he had ordered taken offline, claiming they were “not needed.”
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